April 1, 2026 – First Called Christians in Antioch — Acts #36
Acts. 11:22-26

Acts 11:22-26  The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year, they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians.

As we discussed, Antioch was a large, diverse, multicultural city. about the same population as Atlanta today.   The gospel was flourishing there due to the impact of God’s Holy Spirit and God’s work through Saul and Barnabas.   In Antioch, Jews and Gentiles were worshiping together in the local synagogues.  They found a common belief in the Jewish Messiah, Jesus.  So this was something very new.   

This is happening at the same time as the story we talked about with Peter and Cornelius in Caesarea, back in Israel.  Remember that God uses a dramatic vision to persuade Peter to go to this Gentile’s house.  And while the Jews up in Antioch, who have accepted Jesus as their messiah, don’t have any trouble worshipping with these Gentile believers, back in Israel, it was still viewed as unacceptable. 

You see, the Jews living in the lands outside of Israel were much more accepting of Gentiles.  They lived near them, they worked with them, and went to the market with them.  The Jews in Israel were more isolated and wouldn’t be caught dead talking to a Gentile, much less going to their home.  And they built barriers around their temple to make sure the Gentiles wouldn’t worship with them.  And they told the Gentiles they would kill them if they crossed the barrier. 

So again, this group of followers of Jesus in Antioch, mixed Jews and Gentiles worshiping together, is a very new thing.  And the general population of Antioch recognized that this group was different.  They were in a synagogue, but they weren’t all Jewish.  And unlike the Jewish groups, these people talked about a Messiah who had already come and had risen from the dead.  So they couldn’t call them Jews.  They didn’t know what to call them.  So the last part of verse 26 tells us:

Acts 11:26   τε πρώτως ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ τοὺς μαθητὰς Χριστιανούς.

Ok…In case you have forgotten, Luke wrote the book of Acts in Greek.  Fortunately for those of us who do not speak Greek, Bible translators have put this into English.

Acts 11:26   And in Antioch the disciples were first called Χριστιανούς.

But wait… they didn’t translate that word.  They translated all the other Greek words that we don’t understand.  They translated this Greek word ‘protos’ into an English word that you know,”first”.    But they didn’t translate that last word into an English word.  They just took the Greek letters and replaced them with their English equivalents, so we get a Greek word written in English letters.  That is called transliteration.

The job of a Bible translator is to make this foreign language understandable to you.  So most of the time, they choose the English word or phrase that has the same meaning as the Greek word.  This is translation.  But sometimes they just use the Greek word, but write it in the letters of the English alphabet.  This is transliteration.  It is the same in the Old Testament.  Here are some Hebrew words that were not translated but only transliterated: Sabbath, Amen, Satan, Hallelujah, Shofar, and Messiah. These are all Hebrew words.  They just changed the letters to English letters.  Transliteration. 

Sometimes it is interesting what is translated and what is just transliterated.

John 1:41   He [Andrew] first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).

This is interesting because this English sentence contains a Hebrew word and a Greek word.   This tells us that Andrew was speaking to his brother in Hebrew; he says ‘Messiah,’ but John’s Gospel is in Greek, so he explains to his readers that the Hebrew word “Messiah” is the same as the Greek word they know, “Christos.”  And in Greek Christos means “anointed one.”  And Christian means “followers of the anointed one.”

But when people read this verse: ‘Acts 11:26   And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians’, they get the idea that a new religion is being formed here in Antioch.  It’s the first Christian Church!   It is the beginning of Christianity.  They have separated from the Jews.   Except this is not what is happening.  No one in the first century would have thought this.

Instead, I am going to tell you that something else wonderful is happening here in Antioch.  Something that makes God smile.  It is what he pictured in the beginning.  And John, in the book of Revelation, sees it happening again.  It is what Paul talks about in Galatians

;Galatians 3:28-29   There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Here in Antioch, they all worship together the God of Abraham and His Messiah, Jesus.   Here we see the Holy Spirit working with Jew and Gentile together.   And then in Ephesians, Paul gives another description of what God has done that we first see in Antioch:

Ephesians 2:11-13   Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh… were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Hear the good news, Gentiles.  Once we were on the outside, not part of the covenant God made with Israel, the covenant of promise.  There was no hope for you and I.  But now in Messiah Jesus we have been brought in.  Continuing to the next two verses (I will come back to the part I skipped.):

Ephesians 2:15-16  “…that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”

Jesus has broken down the wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile to create in himself one group of people, not two.  Jesus, through what he did on the cross, reconciled both Jew and Gentile to God and destroyed the hostility between the two groups.  And that is what we see in Antioch in Acts 11.  Jews and Gentiles were brought together through Jesus.   Now back to the middle section….And how did Jesus do it?Ephesians 2:15 “by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances…” What does that mean?  Well, some people say Jesus abolished the law.  But is that consistent with the rest of God’s Word?  Listen to what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5:17-18 “ Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

Jesus plainly states he did not come to abolish the Law. Now, from Paul:

Romans 3:28-31 “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.    Or is God the God of Jews only?  Is he not the God of Gentiles also?  Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the [Jews] by faith and the [Gentiles] by faith.   Do we then abolish the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.”

Paul agrees with Jesus.  The law was not abolished; it was to be upheld.  And Paul continued to follow Jewish law throughout his life.  That did not change for him after becoming a follower of Jesus.   So it wasn’t Old Testament Law that was abolished.  So what was abolished that allowed the Jews and Gentiles to become one in Jesus?   What changed to allow the Jews and Gentiles to be one?

First, the old sacrificial system is brought to perfection in Jesus.   As we talked about several weeks ago, the system of animal sacrifices was incomplete.  There was no sacrifice for sins committed purposely.  No sacrifice for intentional sins.  So after King David commits adultery and murder, he knows there is no sacrifice that can cover his sin.

Psalm 51:16-17   For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

There is no sacrifice to atone for these sins.  His only hope is to fall broken-hearted before God in repentance and beg for God’s grace and mercy.  But David knew what Barnabus later stated in Hebrews 9:22: “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” So David does not know how God will cover these sins, but he begs God to do so somehow.  David is putting his faith in God to atone for his sins.  David doesn’t know the story of Jesus, but he is putting his faith in the sacrifice of Jesus.

How do people in the Old Testament find salvation through Jesus?  David didn’t know his name or the details of Jesus’ life, but he put his faith in God to provide the perfect sacrifice of Jesus.  And it doesn’t matter that David didn’t know his name.  We call him Jesus.  That is not the name his mother called him.  She said ‘Yeshua’.  We have faith that God will forgive our sins through the blood of Yeshua.  David had the same faith that God would forgive his sins through a means he did not know.

Hebrews 10:11-14    For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins… And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.   But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God… For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”

The old system of sacrifices was not complete.  The priests in Jerusalem offered a lamb on the altar for the people’s sins every morning and evening, along with all the other sacrifices.   So there would always be a lamb burning on the altar for the people’s sins.  But the blood of the lambs could never cover all sins. But the offering of Jesus’ blood was the complete and perfect covering for all sin, for all time.  So with Jesus, the system of sacrifice changed.   

Now, if you were not Jewish, there was no way to offer sacrifices for sin.   The Gentiles did not have access to the temple to make sacrifices.   Back to Ephesians:

Ephesians 2:11-13   Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh… were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

There was no hope, no sacrifice for sin.   But now in Jesus, the Gentiles have been brought near to God by the blood of Christ.  But what else changed?

Ephesians 2:14-16   For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances… 

Note that this is the “law of commandments expressed in ordinances”.  We have already noted that it is not God’s Law that has been abolished.   The word for “ordinances” is the Greek word dogma.  Dogma refers to man’s interpretation of God’s law, not God’s law.  It is the word used for the decree that Caesar August made that all the world should be taxed.  It is used for the decision of the council of disciples in Acts 15 

So what was abolished was something in man’s interpretation of God’s law?  What part of man’s interpretation of God’s law was abolished?  

If you look in the Gospels and pay attention to what the Pharisees and Jesus had conflicts about, there were two major things.  First they didn’t understand who Jesus was and that, as God Himself, he had authority to forgive sin.  Jesus would say to people he was healing, “Your sins are forgiven”.    And they would in shock say, “Only God can do that”.  And indeed, that  was the point that they didn’t understand.

Secondly, they were constantly getting onto Jesus for breaking their oral law, the laws of tradition that were not in scripture, but those they added.   They fuss about Jesus healing on the Sabbath.  That was not against God’s law, but only against their interpretation of God’s law, their dogma.  They fussed because Jesus seemed to ignore the laws of ritual purity.

His disciples didn’t wash their hands in the certain way they prescribed.  He associated with sinners, with unclean people.  And then there was the time that the woman who was unclean because of her medical problem touched him.  And the Pharisees said, “Hey, if you were a prophet, you would not allow that.  She is unclean.”

Jesus ignores their dogma on ritual purity.   He talks to Gentiles.  He volunteers to go to the home of a Roman Centurion.  He eats with sinners and tax collectors.  He touches the leper, he touches dead bodies.. And he doesn’t become unclean, but he cleanses.  The leper is healed, the dead come to life, and the sinner repents.  Jesus tells them that what makes you unclean is not how you ceremonially wash your hands, but how you act and what words come out of your mouth.  

So, back to our question, what gets abolished?

1.  The old sacrificial system that was not fully effective for Jews and totally inaccessible to Gentiles.  There was a 4.5-foot wall that kept them out of the temple proper, with the threat of death. Gentiles no longer have to become Jews to worship him.  That wall has been broken down.

2.  And the oral traditions that kept the Jews from interacting with Gentiles or sinners, Jesus has dismissed.   These walls have been broken down.

So God has accomplished the removal of the “dividing wall of hostility” between Israel and Gentiles.  He has “killed the hostility.”    So the Jews in Antioch who follow Jesus as their Messiah, their Christ, now in Acts 11 worship in the synagogue hand in hand with the Gentile followers of Jesus.  Something that just a few years ago would have been thought impossible.  God has made complete peace possible.  

But when God destroyed the wall of hostility, it didn’t take long for people to rebuild that wall of hostility.

In the first century, the first followers of Jesus were seen not as a separate religion but as a sect of Judaism.  They were initially all Jews who had found their promised Messiah in Jesus.  And for years, the Romans had allowed the Jews a special exception to practice their own religion, despite being in conflict with the Roman practices.  And the followers of Jesus, worshipping in Jewish synagogues, enjoyed that same freedom. 

But as Emperors come and go, it seemed either the followers of Jesus or the Jews were being persecuted.  And if the Jews were being persecuted, then the followers of Jesus would say, oh, we are not like them.  So in 49 AD when Claudius kicked the Jews out of Rome, the followers of Jesus said, no, we aren’t like the Jews, let us stay.  And in 64 AD, when Nero blamed the Christians for the great fire in Rome, the Jews said, ” Well, that’s not us.

So the followers of Jesus are no longer seen as a sect of Judaism.   But that also meant that when Nero was gone and the Christians returned, they were no longer given protective religious status since they were no longer seen as a sect of Judaism.

Simon Bar-Kokhba led a Jewish revolt, and many proclaimed him as the Messiah.  Of course, the Jesus followers did not see him as the Messiah and so were even further differentiated from the Jews.  After Rome put down this revolt, they banned Jews from Jerusalem and made circumcision and the study of Torah illegal.  The Gentile followers of Jesus were allowed to remain in Jerusalem.

And so the Jews and the Christians are now seen by the Romans and everyone as two separate people groups.  And animosity arose between the Jews and the Christians as these tensions increased. And the walls of hostility continue to rise up, even in the church.  

As early as the mid-2nd century, we see the writings of Justin Martyr and Melito of Sardis calling the Jews “Christ killers” for their part in the trials of Jesus. These are Catholic Saints.  Theologians call them “Church Fathers.”  And this is the beginning of antisemitism in the Church.

And so it continued until 313 AD when Constantine conquered Rome.  He issued the Edict of Milan, which for the first time made Christianity a legal religion.  They go from persecution to favored status. So now they can build houses of worship.  And the Jews became less favored. Constantine called the Jews “a detestable people” and there is a push by the followers of Jesus to look less Jewish. 

Constantine then called together all the Christian leaders for councils to agree on doctrine and unify the church. So there was the Council of Nicea, from which we have the Nicene Creed, which is very much like the Apostles Creed we use today.  But these councils also sought to separate the Christian church from the Jews as much as possible.

Up to this point, most followers of Jesus still continued to worship on the Sabbath, Saturday.   So the Laodician Council issued a ruling that the First day of the week would be the day of worship and rest, not the seventh.  In fact, they ruled that all Christians must work on the Sabbath, because refraining from work on Saturday would make them appear to be Jewish.  They changed the calendar and removed the Jewish festivals.  They changed the calculation of the celebration of Resurrection Day so it would not be dependent on the Jewish holy days.

Again, these decisions were made in an attempt to separate themselves from the Jewish religion because is was seen as less favored now.  Jews who followed Jesus were forced to renounce their Jewish heritage and traditions.  The wall of hostility Jesus abolished was being rebuilt by the church.

Just listen to this quote from the council of Laodicea on why they wouldn’t follow the Jewish dates for Passover/Easter:

“It was, in the first place, declared improper to follow the custom of the Jews in the celebration of this holy festival, because, their hands having been stained with crime, the minds of these wretched men are necessarily blinded. … Let us, then, have nothing in common with the Jews, who are our adversaries. … Let us … studiously avoiding all contact with that evil way. …

For how can they entertain right views on any point who, after having compassed the death of the Lord, being out of their minds, are guided not by sound reason, but by an unrestrained passion, wherever their innate madness carries them. … lest your pure minds should appear to share in the customs of a people so utterly depraved. … Therefore, this irregularity must be corrected, in order that we may no more have any thing in common with those parricides and the murderers of our Lord. … no single point in common with the perjury of the Jews.”[8]

This is from the council of churches.   This is the same attitude that the Jews used to have towards the Gentiles, the attitude that Jesus came to condemn and to change. 

This attitude towards the Jews developed into full-fledged antisemitism that led to the mistreatment of the Jews for centuries.  There were the pogroms (riots) that sprang up regularly against the Jews in Russia and Europe.    There were massacres of the Jews during the Crusades.  They were expelled from many countries, including England, France, Spain, and Portugal.  There was torture in the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions.   And there was the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazi regime.

And the reason I have gone through this history of the development of antisemitism is to place it against what God has done in Acts 11.

Ephesians 2:14-16   For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”

Jesus died on a cross to take away the penalty of our sins from us.  That we may have forgiveness and be reconciled to God.   And as all people are reconciled to God, they become one in HIm.  Paul recognised that while most Jews had failed to accept Jesus as their Messiah, they nevertheless remain “beloved for the sake of the fathers” (Romans 11:28). Paul saw their rejection of Jesus as a temporary state which the Hebrew prophets foretold (for example, Isaiah 6); yet he also believed eventually the time would come when “… all Israel will be saved, ….” (Romans 11:26). 

When you hear the word “Christian,” I want you to remember how it was originally used: “Follower of the Annointed One.”  And remember that the Messiah, the Christ, was a Jew.  And he came to grant us forgiveness from sin and to tear down the walls of hate that separate people.  We are not to regard anyone as unclean.  We are to love all people and pray for the reconciliation of all people to God through Jesus, the anointed one.