Love Offering
On its surface, storyline in these final verses of Acts 11 is really pretty simple.
And as you will hear in this PODCAST, this story is as heartwarming as it is simple.
This story is also—and so importantly—equally trend-setting. So much will be set in motion that affects how we do things (or ought to do things) even today!
So. Much. Here, my friends, to give you and me pause to ponder, to think, to process.
Trust me. You are in for a rich and rewarding excursion into the depths of God’s Holy Word.
So get ready for your personal edification to take an exciting and exponential leap forward.
Barnabas went on to Tarsus to look for Saul.26 When he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. Both of them stayed there with the church for a full year, teaching large crowds of people. (It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.)
27 During this time some prophets traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch.28 One of them named Agabus stood up in one of the meetings and predicted by the Spirit that a great famine was coming upon the entire Roman world. (This was fulfilled during the reign of Claudius.)29 So the believers in Antioch decided to send relief to the brothers and sisters in Judea, everyone giving as much as they could.30 This they did, entrusting their gifts to Barnabas and Saul to take to the elders of the church in Jerusalem. (Acts 11:25-30)
Now, in verse 27, Agabus and his fellow prophets traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch. Don’t let this sentence fly by unnoticed.
These Gentile believers from Antioch came down to the financial rescue to their Jewish brothers and sisters who were suffering from a famine in Jerusalem. Agabus brought with him what we might call today a “love offering”, exemplifying the first and ultimate sign of Christian unity between all believers.
This passage is also remarkable, in that it is the first time we read about prophets in the New Testament. These prophets, along with the Apostles, laid the doctrinal foundation for the church today.