Not all of the Jewish leaders embraced evangelism to the Gentiles, but some saw the opportunity and walked through the open door. God desired to begin a revival of Gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit and a man named Barnabas answered the call of God. Barnabas was the same individual who sold his land and gave the money to the church prompting Anaias and Sapphira's jealousy and subsequent sin in Acts chapter 5. (see Dispensation Bible Study # 24)

Barnabas was sent from the church at Jerusalem to go to the town of Antioch which was a Gentile city of commerce on the Orontes river approximately 300 miles north of Jerusalem and the capital of Syria. One of the 7 Greek evangelists, Nicolas, was from this town.

When Barnabas arrived at Antioch and preached, he was amazed to see that God poured out His Spirit upon the Gentiles freely. He "was glad" to see that Gentiles were embracing and seeing the "grace of God." Barnabas began to "exhort" and encourage them to continue in the things of the Lord and "cleave" to Him. He realized that receiving a one time experience with God was not enough but that if the Gentiles were to be reached, they would need to grow in knowledge and power.

There is quite a difference between Barnabas' attitude and Peter's reluctance in the previous chapter! God had to show Peter a vision three times and then send soldiers to get Peter to go the Gentiles. Barnabas jumped at the chance to minister to the Gentiles and "was glad" that they were receiving the Holy Ghost. God responded to Barnabas' faith because "much people" were saved and added to the church. God will always respond to people who meet opportunities with faith!

When Barnabas saw the tremendous growth, he realized that he needed help in teaching the people and grounding them in the Word of God. Barnabas remembered Saul who had returned to his home town of Tarsus to escape the persecution of the Jewish leaders. Saul was a Roman citizen so as long as he remained in his home town, he was safe.

Saul (who became Paul) was the greatest missionary and theologian that ever lived, and yet we tend to forget the role that Barnabas had in his ministry. It was Barnabas' testimony of Saul's preaching and experience that caused the leaders in Jerusalem to accept Saul/Paul. Now four years after his conversion, Saul is hiding in his home town of Tarsus because of the threat of persecution and it is Barnabas who goes and searches until he finds Saul/Paul and encourages him to come help in Antioch. Barnabas no doubt remembered the words of Jesus delivered to Ananias about Saul: "He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles" (Acts 9:15). Barnabas' selflessness shows in that he recognized the calling of God on Saul's life and helped him make the transition into God's Will.

For one year, Barnabas and Saul/Paul taught the Gentile believers in the church in Antioch. We must never underestimate the importance of teaching. God poured out the Holy Ghost, but He also needed people with a burden to teach and train the people in the Word of God. Their teaching must have worked because the members of the Antioch church began to be known around town as "Christians," meaning "Christ-like." The term which is still used today, began from the people of Antioch noticing the change that the teaching of Barnabas and Saul/Paul brought in the converts' lives. Many people today call themselves "Christians" but do their actions prove otherwise? To really be a Christian, we must be "Christ-like" in our lifestyle.

The five-fold ministry (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers; see Ephesians 4:11) was in effect at the church in Antioch. One prophet from Jerusalem, a man named Agabus, came and prophesied that a great famine was coming to Judea. Agabus was the same prophet that would prophesy of Paul's imprisonment (see Acts 21:10). The church in Antioch believed this prophecy and began to give an offering to send to the churches in Judea so that they could be ready for the famine when it came. Barnabas and Saul delivered this offering with news of the prophecy to the church in Judea. This prophecy was given ~43 A.D. History teaches us that two years later, in 45 A.D., a great famine hit the Roman Empire in the fourth year of Claudius Caesar's reign. The famine lasted for almost 3 years, but the children of God were ready and stocked thanks to the prophecy of Agabus.

At this time persecution began to increase against the church. This king was Herod Agrippa, the grandson to Herod the Great who tried to kill Jesus at His birth (see Matthew 2). He was also the nephew of Herod Antipas who beheaded John the Baptist. At this time Herod Agrippa had just been given dominion over the lands of Judea and Samaria and he used his new found power to persecute and try to remove the "Christians." He took the disciple James (the brother of John and NOT the brother of Jesus) and beheaded him. History pinpoints this event as A.D 44. The Book of James, which was written in A.D. 48 was written by James the brother of Jesus. It could not have been written by James the disciple because he was dead! Death by the sword was the Jewish punishment for someone who led people in "false worship" so that was undoubtedly the charge brought against the disciple. It is also worthy to note that James, who had requested to sit one day at the place of honor on Jesus' right side, was the first one to die! (see Matthew 20:23) Sometimes you had better be careful for what you ask!

Remember under the Roman rule, that a ruler was allowed to reign as long as there was peace in his provinces. Therefore the rulers would often do anything to keep the people happy. That was the dilemma which led Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus and here it played a role in the persecution of the church. When Herod Agrippa saw that the Jewish leaders were happy that he had killed James, he decided to kill Peter as well!

It was the days of the Passover which was the same time that Jesus had died. Peter was arrested and four "quaternions" or 16 soldiers in groups of four were assigned to do nothing but guard Peter and make sure that he did not escape so that after the Passover festivities, he could be killed. The soldiers probably guarded Peter 4 at a time with each group taking one of the four Jewish watches of the night. No doubt Peter remembered Jesus' words of how he would be crucified as he sat in prison that night, but outside the church in Jerusalem began to pray for God to deliver him! The term "without ceasing" in the Greek denotes both fervency and sincerity as well as perseverance.

It was he night before Peter's death and he was sleeping! Obviously Peter was content with the will of God even if it meant death! Peter was sleeping chained between two of the soldiers, with the other two outside the door guarding it. Suddenly an angel appeared to Peter and a light lit up the prison cell! He shook Peter and woke him up. When Peter stood up, the chains fell off his hands!

The angel commanded Peter to put on his clothes and shoes. Then he said "grab your coat and follow me!" Peter followed as the angel led him out of the cell and thought "I must be dreaming!"

The angel kept leading Peter through the outer prison wards and when they came to the final iron gate of the prison, it opened on it's own! God invented the first automatic door! The angel led Peter to one more street and then disappeared! It was not until Peter was by himself that he realized that his experience had been real. Peter then began to think about where the church would be gathered and guessed correctly Mark's mother's house. This house was the same house beside the Garden of Gethsemane and also the location of the upper room on the Day of Pentecost. It was a large enough house that was used often for gatherings of the Early Church.

While the church was praying inside, a young girl named Rhoda heard Peter knocking and calling out for someone to open the door. Rhoda was so excited when she heard Peter's voice that she ran and interrupted the prayer meeting with the news before opening the door! Despite their fervent prayer, the church members really did not believe that God had answered them! As they were arguing with Rhoda, their answer was standing outside knocking! How many times do we get so caught up in asking God to do something that we fail to see that He is trying to answer our prayer!?!

Luckily Peter continued knocking and when they finally opened the door they were amazed that God had actually done that for which they had been praying! Peter told them the story of his deliverance, commanded them to go tell the story to James (the brother of Jesus) and the other disciples and then left to go to a lesser known place.

Imagine the soldiers' surprise when they awoke from a deep sleep to find that their closely guarded prisoner was gone! When Herod called for Peter to come and stand on trial and nobody could find him, Herod ordered the deaths of all the soldiers who had been assigned to keep him. Under Roman law, a soldier who failed to keep his post or duty was punished by death. That is why the soldiers who fainted away at Jesus' tomb during His resurrection were willing to lie and say that Jesus' disciples had stolen the body. They agreed to lie in exchange for their lives!

History does not record the details of these events so all we know is that of this verse. Tyre and Sidon were seaports that were not under the reign of Herod but were dependent on trade with Judea and Galilee for their food and supplies. The rulers of Tyre and Sidon in some way made a pact with Herod's leaders that he disliked. Whatever the reason for the conflict, it caused Herod to turn his attention from persecuting the church leaders and leave Jerusalem.

It was very common for Roman rulers to hold events and games to rally the citizens behind his leadership and the Roman government. After three years of reigning over all of the land of the Jews, history teaches us that Herod held such an event to commemorate his three years of rule and to give honor to Cladius Caesar. The Jewish historian Josephus records that on the second day of the festival, early in the morning as the sun was rising, Herod Agrippa donned an outfit made of highly reflective silver threads. When he walked out to give a speech, the sun reflected so brightly from his clothing that the people began to shout in astonishment "He is a god, and not a man!" Instead of rebuking the people and refusing the praise as god, Herod accepted the praise. Immediately the scripture says that an angel of the Lord smote him and was "eaten of worms" and died. History teaches us that during this speech, Herod became increasing ill and suffered excruciating pain from a severe inflammation of his bowels. After five days of great agony, Herod Agrippa died. It is interesting that history records that Anitochus Epiphanes who severely persecuted the Jews (see Dispensation Lesson #8) and Herod the Great who tried to kill Jesus by slaughtering all of the new-born, Jewish males also died from this same illness!

Some religions today teach that man has the ability or power to "work his way up" and "become a god." They would be well served to learn the lesson of this scripture well. God is willing to share many things with humanity including His love, mercy, blessings, and plan.

But God will not share His glory with anybody else! God is very serious about humanity only worshiping Him! He is so serious that He stated that He refuses to even share His praise with idols and statues. We must be careful that God alone gets all of the praise and glory! God went on to state in Isaiah:

There is no other God beside the one, true God and He will not share His glory with anybody or anything. Anything that receives praise and glory, He will make sure that it comes to naught, is killed, or is destroyed!

There are four years between verses 23 and 24. During this time, Barnabas finished their teaching in Antioch and decided to return to Jerusalem and minister in that area until given further direction by God. While ministering, they brought along a young man named John Mark whose mother owned the house where the church in Jerusalem frequently met. Mark had been a young child at the time of Jesus' ministry (see Dispensation Lesson #18) and had now gotten into his teenage years. John Mark would eventually become an "adopted son" to Peter and would write the Gospel of Mark which is largely Peter's account of the ministry of Jesus. Mark would join Timothy and Titus in becoming the second generation of leadership of the Church after the deaths of the apostles. Once again we see the patient hand of Barnabas in recognizing the call of God on someone's life and taking them to train. Saul/Paul and John Mark eventually became much more famous than Barnabas but they would have never accomplished anything for God without his selfless and patient help!