Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Acts 11:27–30
“The disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul” (vv. 29–30).
Barnabas and Saul engaged in an effective ministry in Antioch, teaching many people there for a whole year after Barnabas brought Saul from Tarsus (Acts 11:25–26). A great need in the Jerusalem church would arise near the end of that year that would prompt Barnabas to leave Antioch for Jerusalem, as we see in today’s passage.
Luke tells us in Acts 11:27 that in those days, “prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.” Since Jerusalem is on a mountain, one always comes down from Jerusalem when traveling away from the city and one always goes up to Jerusalem when journeying to the city. In any case, one of these Christian prophets, Agabus, predicted a coming famine “over all the world,” and Luke says that this famine occurred during the reign of Claudius. This Claudius served as Roman emperor from AD 41 to 50, and during his time as the caesar, many natural disasters and food shortages plagued the Roman Empire. Because of this, it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact date of the famine to which Luke refers. Probably it took place in about AD 45. Agabus gave his prediction sometime before that, for the Lord was preparing His people for the suffering that lay ahead.
When the Christian disciples in Antioch heard about this famine, they apparently understood that the disaster would particularly afflict the believers in Jerusalem. As we see in Acts 11:29–30, the disciples decided to send financial relief to Judea, each person giving to help the church in Jerusalem “according to his ability.” The Antiochian church sent Barnabas and Saul to carry these funds to Jerusalem.
Importantly, the leaders in Antioch did not compel this giving; it came naturally and voluntarily as the believers were led by God to show love to the believers in Judea. The Christians in Antioch, though far from Jerusalem, understood themselves to be connected to the church in Jerusalem, and they knew that they could not just leave their brothers and sisters in Christ to starve. The giving of the gentile Antiochians to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem powerfully demonstrated the unity of the church, and later in his ministry Paul would take up another collection from the gentile churches for the church in Jerusalem (see 2 Cor. 9). Ethnic differences did not keep Jewish and gentile Christians from loving and serving one another in the early church. The gentiles’ giving testified to the peace that Jesus brings between people.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Dr. R.C. Sproul writes in his commentary, “A commitment to the real gospel of salvation carries along with it a commitment to the material welfare and well-being of people.” The gospel indeed is a spiritual message, but gospel ministry is not content simply to declare the truth and to leave suffering people to fend for themselves. As Christians, we are to show love to the whole person, both the body and the soul.
For further study
- Ruth 2
- Romans 15:22–29
The bible in a year
- 2 Kings 20–22
- John 6:60–71
- 2 Kings 23–1 Chron. 2
- John 7:1–52