Chapter 11:19-30

The joining that had started with Peter and Cornelius spreads out now further. It does not remain the programme of a few people, but becomes the way of life for a church in formation. It will remain anathema to some, but it is the way of God. 
The city of Antioch takes on significance. Here is a place where faithful Jewish Christians are speaking with Gentiles. There is a man sent from Jerusalem to Antioch to investigate what is happening. Barnabas could have been the inspector who seeks to maintain status quo.
Instead, he turns out to be a key figure in the narrative of the book and in the history of the world. This is due to the fact that he is open to the movement of the Spirit of God. He blesses the openness of the faith to those who had been outsiders.  

Dear God; 
Now as well. The church today has too often become a place of division and hard lines and exclusion. Help us to see your work and presence across the lines that we have drawn. I do this imaginative exercise. I picture that there is a line and on one side are people who will enter into eternal bliss, on the other side are those will enter into eternal damnation. I am observing this as a kind of reporter, and I ask some people in the eternal bliss camp a couple of questions. 1. How did this dividing up happen? The answer is “We divided up the people”. 2. What do you have to do to get on this side of the line? The answer: “You have to be just like us and think just like us and believe just like us.” 
And then I know that it’s a scam. 
Dear God, you have always been better than this. You have always destroyed the lines of exclusion that we have built. And now I see Jesus, the light of the world, redeeming all things.  

Give me eyes to see,  
In His name; 
Amen 

Something else happens in Antioch as Paul and Barnabas, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, begin to change the world. In Antioch, the people who speak of the love of Jesus are given a name. It is a name of derision thrown onto them by their opponents. In Antioch the followers of Jesus are for the first time called; Christians.