They then who had been scattered abroad through the tribulation that took place on the occasion of Stephen, passed through [the country] to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one but to Jews alone.
Stephen's death set off violence in Jerusalem, and the believers who fled took the message with them. Two things stand out: the gospel spread because believers were driven out, and even so they spoke only to their own people.
Commentators see the violence after Stephen's death as the tool God used to move the message out of Jerusalem.
Here we find the first general persecution, which, in God's hands, served to scatter the seed of the gospel... While all the Christians are scattered by the persecution, the apostles remain in Jerusalem. It is the crowd of Christians scattered by the persecution who preach the gospel in Palestine, and later among the Gentiles... It was not the settled plan of man, nor the spiritual zeal of the apostles. It was the fury of the enemy which, according to the wisdom of God, first spread the gospel outside the gates of Jerusalem.
The people speaking here are ordinary believers on the run, not officials.
True order was never higher than then; yet no apostle raised his voice to ask, "By what authority do you preach?"... He alone sent them, and He alone blessed their work. What authority can rival His?
Scripture never gives their names.
God has taken particular care not to name them, perhaps so that we should not credit them with a deeper grasp of His mind than was really due. The great fact was there, and simple-hearted labourers were the ones to whom God gave this mighty and profound impulse by His Spirit.
They carried the message hundreds of miles, but only to fellow Jews.
Their Jewish training and education had taught even the first converts at Jerusalem to limit their thoughts of the grace of God to people of their own race. So when they were scattered "because of the persecution that arose over Stephen," they spoke the word to no one except Jews... Knowing the Lord's mind about who should hear the message matters as much as knowing His mind about the message itself. Every preacher of the word of God should weigh this, for it is the very condition of having His presence and blessing.
What broke the pattern was background, not rank.
At first these preached only to Jews, travelling northward to Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. Some of them, however, were from Cyprus and Cyrene, and so were Hellenists — Jews who lived outside their own land. These did not have the same reserve as the Jews from Judea.
The three names mark a real route out of Jewish territory.
Phoenicia — the coast of Northern Syria, south of Tyre and north of Sidon. It is a narrow strip of land in the south, reaching to the Lebanon range in the north-east. The Phoenicians carried on great trading enterprises, and their ships brought in the produce of foreign lands.
The last name on the list marks a turning point.
Acts 11:19 begins the account of the new order of things that marks out the ministry of Paul.
The account steps back here to an unofficial beginning that ran alongside the official one.
God took care that the gospel should reach the Gentiles first in a way that was completely informal. Yet the highest church authorities were there to start and approve its opening with the seal of the whole apostolic body in Jerusalem. The work among the Gentiles began without even a clear purpose or definite understanding on the part of those who carried it on. Nothing was visible except the loving zeal that knew the desperate need of the Gentiles, and the immeasurable power of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus... So it seemed good to God to begin Gentile Christianity through men of comparatively little account in either the world or the church, before there was the smallest contact between Peter and Cornelius. So the highest order ever set up in the assembly on earth could not boast.
- Driven — the fury of the enemy first carried the gospel outside Jerusalem. It was not the plan of man or the zeal of the apostles.
- Unnamed — those driven out preached with no appointment, and no apostle questioned their right. God kept their names back, so no one would credit them with more insight than was due.
- Limited — training and upbringing kept them speaking to Jews only. The ones who went further were Jews raised abroad, with less reserve.
- Routed — they went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, out along a coast built on trade. With Antioch begins the new order that marks Paul's ministry.
- Informal — God began the work among the nations through people of little account. The formal opening through Peter came alongside it, so the highest order could not boast.
But there were certain of them, Cyprians and Cyrenians, who entering into Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, announcing the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus.
Persecution had scattered the believers, and most of them told the good news only to fellow Jews. At Antioch a few of them crossed that line, and God left their names out of the record.
Some translations read "Hellenists" or "Grecians" here, meaning Jews who spoke Greek. Commentators point to the better text, which reads "Greeks":
Because of the persecution these men of Cyprus and Cyrene had gone everywhere, and among other places to Antioch. Until now they had preached the word to none but the Jews. Now they took courage and spoke — not to the Grecians, for this had been done long ago, but to the Greeks, preaching the Lord Jesus. Those they addressed were really Gentiles. The word "Grecians" does not mean "Greeks." It means Greek-speaking Jews, who had heard the gospel long before, as the cases of Stephen and Philip show.
The verse names Cyprus and Cyrene but not one man. Commentators take that silence as deliberate:
It was love, it was spiritual instinct, in the heart of those who evangelized, whose very names are unknown. God has taken particular care not to name them, perhaps so that we should not attribute to them a deeper perception of His mind than was really due.
No office, appointment or recognised standing appears anywhere in the account:
It is remarkable how all this discredits official position. We do not know the name of a single person used in the work. Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, is still little known in his home city. Barnabas is not yet on the scene. God is acting in open sovereignty, using whatever instruments He will.
Peter had needed a vision before God could send him on this errand. These men needed no sign at all:
Great workman as Peter was, he needed God to step in with a vision to send him. These unnamed men took up the same work in their confidence in His grace, without any vision or sign at all. It seems to have been the working of divine grace in their souls, and nothing else. At first they were more timid; they spoke only to Jews. Little by little the power of the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit filled them with longing for the needs of others. The Gentiles were sinners: why should they not dare to speak to the Gentiles?
Their service might have looked irregular to others:
These men might have been despised as irregular workers. Yet they were in the current of the same work of God, even if they knew nothing of it, except by divine instinct.
To Jews the preaching had been that Jesus is the Messiah. With Greeks the title changes:
Most of them still had the Jews only in their thoughts. They preached the Messiah, crucified and risen from the dead, and they preached Him to Jews only. But there were some who went beyond that... His title of Messiah applied above all to the Jew. The Jew had the holy writings, which announced the coming of the Messiah. But when we consider Him from the point of view of His Lordship, then all other distinctions vanish. He is Lord of the Jew, but He is equally Lord of the Gentile.
That title makes a claim on the hearer:
They proclaimed His glory and called on men everywhere to submit to Him as the One whom God had made supreme over all.
The verse says only that they "spoke":
Those simple and true-hearted men, divinely led, could not hold themselves back. Greeks must hear the message of that salvation in which they rejoiced. They probably spoke Greek themselves, so no language barrier stood between them and Greeks. The historian says they spoke. That gives the impression that they worked by ordinary conversation, not by set preaching.
This unplanned conversation started the church that would send Paul out to the nations. Looking back over the whole stretch of the book, one writer draws the lesson for every generation:
Samaria evangelised, Gentiles admitted into the kingdom, Greeks converted at Antioch: such is the record in brief... and all carried out without apostolic direction or human authority. The Holy Spirit opened up fields of labour independently of human direction. What He did then we may count on Him to do still.
- Scattered — persecution drove these believers out, and at first they spoke only to Jews.
- Crossed — the better reading is "Greeks": real Gentiles. Greek-speaking Jews had heard the gospel long before.
- Nameless — God kept every name out, so no man could take the credit. No office or appointment appears in the story.
- Lord — to Greeks they preached the Lord Jesus, not the Messiah. Under that title Jew and Gentile stand alike.
- Antioch — ordinary conversation turned Greeks to the Lord there, with no apostle directing it. The Spirit still opens fields this way.