Acts 11:27 - Meaning and Application

When our Lord Jesus went up to heaven, he gave gifts to people. These gifts included not only apostles and evangelists, but also prophets. The Spirit enabled prophets to foresee and speak about future events. This helped confirm the truth of Christianity, because everything they foretold came to pass. That showed they were sent by God (Deuteronomy 18:22; Jeremiah 28:9). Their gifts also helped the church a great deal and guided it well.

Here we have a visit from some of these prophets to Antioch, the growing church in Syria (Acts 11:27). During the year when Barnabas and Saul lived there, prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. We are not told how many came, and it is not certain whether these were the same prophets later mentioned in the church at Antioch (Acts 13:1). They came from Jerusalem, probably because they were not as respected there as before. They had, in a sense, finished their work there, so it was time to move on. Jerusalem had a bad history of killing prophets and mistreating them, so it was right for it now to be deprived of these prophets.

They came to Antioch because they had heard that this church was flourishing, and they hoped to help there. In this way, each person should use the gift he has received to serve others. Barnabas came to encourage them, and now, since they had received that encouragement well, prophets were sent to tell them things to come, as Christ had promised (John 16:13). Those who are faithful with little are entrusted with more. The best way to understand prophetic Scripture is by obeying the commands of Scripture.

Then comes a specific prediction of a coming famine, spoken by one of these prophets, Agabus. We meet him again when he foretells Paul’s imprisonment (Acts 21:10, 11). He stood up, likely in one of their public gatherings, and prophesied (Acts 11:28). Notice where his message came from. It was not his own idea, not imagination, not a guess based on the weather, and not an astrological prediction. He spoke as the Holy Spirit revealed to him that there would be a famine. In the same way, Joseph, by the Spirit, understood Pharaoh’s dreams and foretold the famine in Egypt, and Elijah foretold the famine in Israel during Ahab’s time. God reveals his secrets to his servants the prophets.

The prophecy itself was that there would be a great shortage of food throughout the world. This would happen because of bad weather, so grain would become scarce and expensive, and many poor people would die for lack of bread. It would not be limited to one country, but would spread through the whole world, meaning the Roman Empire, which people proudly called the world. Christ had already said there would be famines in general (Matthew 24:7; Mark 13:8; Luke 21:11), but Agabus now foretold one especially serious famine that was about to begin.

This prediction was fulfilled in the days of Claudius Caesar. It began in the second year of his reign and lasted until the fourth year, and perhaps even longer. Several Roman historians mention it, and Josephus does too. God had given them the bread of life, and they rejected it and despised the true bread from heaven. So God justly broke the staff of bread and punished them with famine. He was righteous in doing so. They were barren and did not bring forth fruit for God, and so God made the earth barren for them.

The believers made a good use of this warning. When they heard that a famine was coming, they did not do what the Egyptians did and hoard grain for themselves. Instead, as Christians should, they set aside help for others. That is the best preparation for our own suffering and need. Scripture promises that those who consider the poor will be preserved, kept alive, and blessed in the land (Psalm 41:1, 2). It also says that those who show mercy and give to the poor will not be ashamed in hard times, but will be satisfied in days of famine (Psalm 37:19, 21). The best store we can lay up for a hard time is an interest in these promises, gained by doing good and sharing with others (Luke 12:33). Many people use uncertain times as a reason to hold back. Scripture uses them as a reason to be generous, sowing beside all waters, because we do not know what trouble may come on the earth (Ecclesiastes 11:2).

They decided that each person, according to his ability, should send relief to the believers living in Judea (Acts 11:29). The people singled out for help were the brethren in Judea. We should do good to all people whenever we have the chance, but we must give special care to the family of faith (Galatians 6:10). No poor person should be ignored, but God’s poor should be especially cared for. The early church in Jerusalem had already shown this duty, where help was so steady that no one lacked anything (Acts 4:34).

Here the fellowship of believers is extended further. The church in Antioch planned to help the poor in Judea, whom they called their brothers. It seems it was common for Jews living outside Judea to send money to Jews in Judea for the relief of the poor, and to make collections for that purpose. This suggests that poverty was widespread in Judea, more so than in other places, so that even the rich could not easily keep everyone from starving. That may have been because the land had become unfruitful because of the sins of those who lived there, or because they had little trade with other nations.

We may suppose that most of those who became Christians there were poor people, since the poor heard the gospel gladly (Matthew 11:5). We may also suppose that when poor people became Christians, they were cut off from public charity and lost their place on the poor list. So it would have been easy to see that a famine would hit them very hard. If any of them died for lack of food, it would bring great shame on the Christian name. For that reason, they wisely began to gather support ahead of time, before the famine came, so that it would not be too late.

They were also united in this plan. Every believer was to contribute according to his ability to this good work. Many of the Jews living in other countries had grown rich through trade, and many wealthy Jews had become Christians. Their abundance should help supply the needs of their poor brothers who lived far away. The needs of such people should be considered, and not only the needs of those who live near us.

Charitable people are like traders with what God has given them. Merchants profit by sending goods to faraway places, and we also do well when we give help to needy people who are far off. So when we are called to it, we should be ready to give. Each person decided to send something, more or less, according to what he could afford, what he could spare from supporting himself and his family, and according to how God had prospered him. We must judge for ourselves what is within our ability, but we should be careful to judge rightly.

What they did matched what they had planned, as Acts 11:30 says. They did it. They did not only talk about it. Many good plans of this kind are made and praised, but they never get carried out and so come to nothing. This one was followed through. The collection was gathered, and it was large enough that they thought it worth sending Barnabas and Saul to Jerusalem to carry it to the elders there, even though their work would be needed for a time at Antioch.

They sent it to the elders, that is, the presbyters, the ministers or pastors of the churches in Judea, so they could distribute it according to the needs of the people who received it, just as it had been given according to the ability of those who donated it. It was sent by Barnabas and Saul, who may have welcomed a chance to go to Jerusalem and therefore were glad to take this task. Josephus says that at this time King Herod sent help to the chief men of Jerusalem for the poor people there. He also says that Helena, queen of Adiabene, was then in Jerusalem and, hearing that many were dying there and in the surrounding country from famine, sent for provisions from Cyprus and Alexandria and distributed them among the people.

Dr. Lightfoot also notes, from the date Paul gives for his rapture, that this journey to Jerusalem with alms and offerings was likely when Paul had the trance in the temple, which he mentions in Acts 22:17. In that trance he was caught up into the third heaven. Then Christ told him that he would send him from there to the Gentiles, and Paul did so as soon as he returned to Antioch.

It is no shame, in an unusual case, for ministers of the gospel to carry the church’s gifts of charity. Still, if they were to take on the regular care of such matters, it would usually pull them away too much from the more important work for which they have given themselves, prayer and the ministry of the word.