On The Christian Name

Adapted From A Sermon By

John Newton

and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

(Acts 11:26 ESV)

In the city of Antioch something remarkable happened. For the first time in history, the followers of the Lord Jesus received the name by which we are still known today — Christians. Acts 11:26: And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

It was no accident. This name was not lightly given, nor was it merely a nickname from the world. In this sermon, John Newton helps us see the honor, the weight, and the solemn calling wrapped up in that single word: Christian.

May the Lord open our hearts as we consider what it truly means to bear this name — and whether we are living in a way that is worthy of it.

Luke had finished his part in telling the story of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In the book we call the Acts of the Apostles, he now tells us what happened to those faithful followers Jesus left behind on earth. This was after Jesus returned to heaven on behalf of his people. Jesus had come down from heaven because of his love for them.

We learn that the good promises Jesus made while he was still with them started to happen right away. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, as it says in Acts chapter two, the Holy Spirit came down powerfully on them. The Spirit equipped them to preach the gospel to the whole world and gave them clear evidence of success. Their very first effort resulted in about three thousand people coming to faith.

The first believers were united in heart and soul. They stayed faithful to the apostles teaching and shared everything they had. They would have been very happy to remain together in Jerusalem until death took each one to the heavenly Jerusalem. But that was not where they were meant to stay. Their Lord had called them to be "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world" (Matt. 5.). So he used the anger of their enemies to scatter them.

Herod and the Jews had no idea what would come from the persecution they started against the church of Christ. Persecutors are always blind and end up working against their own plans. That is exactly what happened here. We are told that "those who were scattered went about preaching the word." In this way the word of the Lord "ran and was glorified." Their worst enemies actually helped push it forward. In just a few years it was published "from sea to sea" and "from the river to the ends of the earth," Psalm 72.

For a while these faithful followers of Jesus were known only by different local names, depending on the attitudes of people in each place. Some called them Nazarenes, others Galileans, people of that way, or even troublemakers and similar names. But eventually, when their numbers grew larger, when their groups became well organized, and when their enemies became alarmed everywhere, they received a single clear name that applied to all of them.

Luke tells us that this actually happened, and he also tells us exactly where it first took place. Everything in Scripture has meaning. There is always a good reason for every single detail that God has included. So we can draw practical lessons from this statement in the text for our benefit and guidance: "in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians."

We will consider two main points.

1. First, the name Christians became the main name that set the disciples apart from the world and united them with one another.

2. Second, this name first appeared in Antioch.

Those are the two points as they appear in the text. We will look into the second point first and then move to the first.

If we consider the state of the city of Antioch before, during, and after the event recorded here, we can draw useful lessons for ourselves from each period. This should be our goal whenever we read the Bible, especially these books which are able to make us wise for salvation, where no sentence is without meaning.

Antioch, the capital of Syria, was built about three hundred years before Christ. For a long time it had been the most important and flourishing city in the East. The most relevant fact for our purpose is that it had been the home and headquarters of Antiochus, the most cruel and bitter enemy of the church and people of God. He was the clearest picture of the Antichrist who would later come into the world. The prophet Daniel spoke of him directly in chapter eleven.

But see the wisdom, power, and providence of God. When his people were brought low, he came to their help. He set limits to the rage of their enemy that could not be crossed. Then, at the right time, he raised the first general banner of the gospel on the very same spot where his greatest enemy had camped for so long and from where so many evil plans had been launched.

This truth speaks directly to the times we live in now. We see a strong alliance working against all things Christian. Our enemies are many and powerful. Their plans seem carefully laid, and their efforts are unrelenting. We do not know exactly what will happen next. Yet we can take courage from what God has done in past ages and from the clear promises in Scripture. Even if the kings of the earth gather together and rulers make plans against God (Psalm 2), in the words of Isaiah He has a hook in their nose and a bit in their mouth(Isaiah 37). In the end, all their power and schemes will produce exactly what they did not want. They will bring about the good and glory of God's church.

The same God who caused the Christian name to begin first in Antioch, where his truth had been opposed most strongly and successfully, can also bring true Christian faith and worship into the very places that now seem completely without it. For this we should pray continually.

Again, if we consider the state of Antioch at the time the disciples were first called Christians there, we can learn how to judge our own profession of faith. This city was famous for its luxury and immoral living. It was known even across Asia, where luxury and self-indulgence were common everywhere. Whether the disciples took this name themselves or whether their enemies gave it to them, one thing is clear: in the eyes of the people, the name Christian was a term of the greatest shame and disgrace.

There is likely no insulting name given to any group in later times that has carried even half the contempt an inhabitant of Antioch expressed when he called someone a Christian. The name carried such shame that we can scarcely imagine it today. Yet this was the name the disciples were first known by in that city.

The apostle tells us that he and his fellow believers were accounted "the scum of the world, the refuse of all things" (1 Cor. 4.). He chose two words that carried the lowest and most shameful meaning possible. The outward situation has changed since then. Today an outward profession of Christianity often brings no shame. But we must not think that the real nature of things has changed. It was then accepted as a basic truth that "all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Tim. 3.). This is still a truth based on Scripture and confirmed by experience. If we know nothing of this in our own lives, it is because our attitudes and ways are sadly too much like the wicked world around us.

We will consider this more fully later. For now, here is a test we can use to examine ourselves. If we could not be glad to carry the name Christian under the same hard conditions the disciples faced at Antioch, then... we are still unworthy of it. Let conscience decide.

Once again, Antioch was the city where the good news about Jesus once grew so strongly that the whole Christian church received the name Christians from there. That is the name we still use today. But now Antioch is gone. It has been nothing but ruins for more than five hundred years. The light of the gospel has been taken away for a long time. Joy and festivity are also forgotten. Slavery, lies, and rough ways have wiped out every trace of what it once was, and even the memory of it.

Would that our land of Canada could learn a clear warning from this right now. We have been greatly blessed in the past. God gave us a strong foundation of orthodox Christianity that shaped our nation for many generations. Our privileges have been great, perhaps greater than most nations have known in recent centuries. God has kept us safe in amazing ways up to now.

Yet we must not become proud. Our sins and the wrong things we have done are very serious. We fear they have been great in the past and still are today. Many people in our land are turning away from God and rejecting his ways. We see that God does not favor one place more than another, just as he does not favor one person more than another. Antioch is ruined. Philadelphia, which received such an honorable report from the mouth of the Lord himself in Revelation chapter three, has been destroyed for a long time.

We should be careful not to boast. We should not assume too much about who we are. We should not say, "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD," as in Jeremiah chapter seven, we are a peaceful and prosperous nation, and nothing can hurt us. That is true only if the Lord is with us. If we live in a way that matches the calling we have received, we are safe. But if we do not, we do not know how soon God may bring his heavy judgments on us, war, hunger, fighting among ourselves, or disease. Then we will become a warning to others, just as other places now stand as warnings to us.

Our liberties, our properties, our Christian heritage are in God hands. May he turn our hearts to true repentance. Otherwise these blessings may be taken from us and given to a people who will produce more fruit.

It is not completely clear from the text whether the disciples chose this name for themselves, or whether the clever people of that time gave it to them as a label of shame, or whether it came by the special leading of the Holy Spirit. The last possibility seems more likely; Partly because in those good days the disciples made it their regular practice and great privilege to ask for and receive direction from God in almost every matter; But mainly because of the powerful lessons wrapped up in this strong name. Those lessons are enough to guide and strengthen everyone who carries the name in their duty to one another, to God, and to the world around them.

Some of these lessons we will draw out from the main statement in the text, that the first name by which the followers of the gospel were generally known was the name Christians.

Up to this point, the believers had been kept separate from the world, and they had also been divided among themselves. The prejudices between members of the same group were so strong that, right at the beginning of this chapter, some from one side argued sharply with the apostle Peter simply because he ate with people from the other side. That is why there is the distinction in verses 1-3, "We of the Jews," "They of the Gentiles."

But from now on they are taught to set aside the major divide between Jew and Gentile, along with the smaller divisions around Paul, Apollos, and Cephas. They blend all of these into one single name that comes from Christ himself. He alone is worthy to be their head, and he is equally rich in mercy to all who call upon him in every place.

And as the believers learned to live in unity and love with one another, this name also clearly showed their relationship to God, the way they come to him, and their constant dependence on him.

A Christian is a child of God through faith in Christ. He draws near to God in the name of Christ. He is led and supported by the Spirit of Christ. Christ is the beginning and the end of the faith, the hope, and the love of every believer. Every good desire comes from him alone. Every good purpose is made strong by him alone. And only in him are any of our best efforts acceptable to God.

Let us be careful, and this is an important warning for our time, of a Christianity that has no Christ in it. This is no better than a house without a foundation, a tree without roots, a body without a head, or a hope that has no real hope. It is a false belief that, if a person continues in it, will end in complete and final ruin.

"For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." He is the cornerstone, "in the sight of God chosen and precious." How sad it is for those who are offended by him in whom God is well pleased. But those who trust in him will never be put to shame.

This is another important lesson contained in the name Christian.

Nor is this all. In the name Christian they could read, and we can still read, the terms on which we are to stand with the world around us.

If someone asked what the words Platonist or Pythagorean meant, we would say they described people who accepted the teachings, followed the rules, and copied the way of life of Pythagoras or Plato. To explain further, we would simply tell the story of the lives and writings of those men.

In the same way, suppose we were in some faraway country where people had only heard the name Christianity. If we had the chance to tell them the full story of Jesus Christ, his teachings, and his commands; how he lived, how he taught, how he died and why; what kind of treatment he received from the world, and what he warned his followers to expect after he left them. If we then described the lives of his closest followers who came right after him and showed that, just as he was in the world, so were they, pursuing his example and facing exactly the same opposition, would not the people of that country quickly conclude what the Scripture has already told us? They would see that the spirit of Christianity and the spirit of the world are completely opposite. As it is written, "whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" So anyone who boldly claims to be a friend of God must expect to be treated as an enemy by the world. The world and everything in it will be against him.

But suppose we went on to tell them that although the same laws, the same warnings, and the same examples still exist, that strong opposition described has almost disappeared. Today, some of the people who speak most highly of the Christian name are actually the ones who get along best with the world and please it the most. Would not those listeners immediately conclude that one side must have given in to the other? Either the whole world has become the kind of Christians that the first believers were at Antioch, or most modern Christians are Christians in name only. They have no real claim to the spirit that marked the early church.

And if we imagine that, after hearing all this, some of those distant people came and landed in Canada and traveled across our country, do you think they would take long to decide which of these two things is really true?

Many people are fooled when they limit many parts of the New Testament to the time when they were first written. Yet the apostles took great care to keep us from making this mistake. John said clearly, "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him," and then he explained right away what he meant by the world. He said it is "the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life" 1 John ii.

If status, showing off, and chasing physical pleasures are not part of the world today, then we have no part in the apostle's decision and no reason to pay attention to his warning. But if these same things are still valued highly and chased just as eagerly and widely now in Canada as they were two thousand years ago in Rome and Antioch, then we carry the name Christian for nothing if our hopes and fears, our joys and sorrows, our comforts and our cares are not very different from those of most people around us. "Anyone," says the apostle Paul, "who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him," Rom. viii.

Whatever else having the spirit of Christ includes, it certainly means at least this: a heart and mind that is in some measure like the mind that was in Christ Jesus. We show it by a life and daily behavior that matches his teaching and example.

He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. He went about doing good. He was gentle and compassionate, meek and patient even when people treated him badly. He was so active for the glory of God that his zeal is described as eating him up. He cared so deeply about people that he wept over his worst enemies. He was so focused on helping and teaching others that an opportunity to do so felt like food and drink to him when he was hungry. It made him forget his own tiredness and pain. He was so devoted to God that after spending the whole day helping people, he would often spend whole nights in prayer.

No pen can fully describe and no heart can fully imagine the life of the Son of God while he was here in the flesh. Yet in all these things he is our great example. No claim or title will help us unless we are people who copy him closely and carefully. For this is what the beloved apostle says: "whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him," 1 John ii.

We close with a short word to three kinds of people.

1. First, if anyone here has almost or completely walked away from the honorable name into which you were baptized, think carefully about this: You trust what you call the light of nature and the power of human reason. You decide what is right by your own standard, and you say in your words and show by your actions, "you will not have this man to rule over you," Luke xix.

Is it not strange, according to your view, that the name which first started from Antioch under the greatest difficulties spread so quickly across the world? It did this without clever tricks, without weapons, without force, and without any outside pressure. Is it possible that any kind of excitement could move not just a few people in one place or time, but large numbers of people of all ages, all temperaments, and all situations to accept a way of life that brought shame and suffering in direct proportion to how seriously they followed it?

The places most famous for opposing this way have long since turned to dust. But a steady line of those the world considered "not worthy to live, and of whom the world was not worthy," Acts xxv. Heb. xi. has always continued and still continues today.

If you had lived in the days when Jesus Christ told a group of poor, overlooked fishermen that neither the power nor the plans of the world, nor the gates of hell, would ever overcome them, Matt. xvi. you might have had more excuse for not believing him. But now you see this promise fulfilled right before your eyes. You know from your reading how many strong attempts have been made to make these words empty. You know how steadily and powerfully those attempts were carried out for a time. Yet in the end they all failed completely and brought confusion and ruin to those who tried them. What acceptable reason can you give for the choice you are making?

Does the direction of the gospel upset you? Is it against a higher concept of virtue you secretly espouse? On the contrary, we are ready to show clearly that the gospel contains not only the highest standards of real virtue, but that true practice and even the real love of virtue cannot be reached in any other way. Without it, the best-looking claims are nothing more than great "loud boasts of folly," 2 Pet. ii.

Newton says he speaks boldly on this because he speaks from experience. He was once like this. He truly thought that he ought to do, or at least that he might do, "many things against Jesus of Nazareth," Acts xxvi. No one went further than he did, within the limits of his age and ability, in opposing the truths of the gospel. But the mercy of God spared him. His guidance led him through many changes and situations in life, and in each one he gained a deeper conviction of his earlier mistakes.

And then he was given the opportunity to tell us, and desires to speak it straight to our hearts, "that at the name of Jesus every knee" sooner or later "must bow," Phil. ii. Before him every heart must either bend or break. He is full of mercy, love, and pardon to all who submit to him. But before long he will be "revealed from heaven in flaming fire, to execute judgment, and to convince ungodly sinners of all the harsh things they have spoken against him," Jude.

2. Secondly, a word for those who say they believe in the Lord Jesus, yet in the way they live they clearly deny him, Tit. i. This is, if possible, a worse situation than the first one, and yet how common it is.

You believe that Jesus Christ came into the world to be the payment for sin and to give us an example of a godly life. Yet you remain content to keep practicing the very sins for which he poured out his life. You chase the vices the gospel rejects and indulge the desires your own conscience condemns.

Carefully consider these words in the fiftieth Psalm. God says to the wicked, "What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you?"

This question is put to our consciences now so that we may recognize the danger of living a lie before it is too late, and not "perish with a lie in our right hands," Is. xliv. If we cannot answer it honestly today, what will we say in that terrible hour when God speaks with the voice of ten thousand thunders to everyone who mocked him in this life with empty outward worship? They drew near to him with their lips, but their hearts were far from him, Is. xxix.

The day is coming, the day of the Lord, when God will bring every hidden thing into the light. Every person's works will be tested and weighed. They will be tested in the fire of his purity and weighed in the balance of his righteousness. Whatever the result shows, that result will last for all eternity. No one could survive such a test on their own, but the merits of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and our Judge, stand in our place.

Yet he has already told us that on that day he will only acknowledge those who were faithfully devoted to his service here. To the urgent cries and strongest pleas of everyone else he will simply say, "I do not know you, I never knew you," Matt. vii. "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire," Matt. xxv.

What good will it do then to plead our privileges? If this is all we have, we can already read our sentence. "And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more," Luke xii. Consider this, you who forget God, before he tears you in pieces, and there is no one to save you.

3. Finally, let those who through grace have come to worship God in spirit and in truth be careful to live out their profession and hold it firmly. You see your calling. Let the name Christian always remind you of your high duty to the author of your faith and your constant dependence on him. Use this name to encourage and direct your whole way of life.

If at times you receive unfair treatment or unkind judgments, do not be surprised. This is how it must and will be, to a greater or lesser degree, for all who try to keep a conscience that is clear of offense, Acts xxiv.

Yet be careful to shape your actions by the rule of God's word. Our Lord says, "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account," Matt. v. Note first that the evil spoken against you must be false and without any real basis. Second, the reason must be for the sake of Christ, and not because of any unusual things in your own opinions or behavior that you cannot clearly support from scripture.

It is a great blessing when the innocence and simplicity of the dove is combined with real wisdom. It is a mercy to be kept from causing unnecessary trouble in these times of division and disagreement. Make sure that a principle of love for God and for people for his sake guides all your actions. This will be a quiet, timely, and sure guide in a thousand situations where specific rules cannot reach.

"Be sober, be vigilant, continue instant in prayer." In a little while all your struggles will end in victory. Faith will turn into sight, and hope will turn into full possession. Yet a little while, and "Christ, who is our life, shall appear," Col. iii. to defend his truth and put a final end to all evil and offense.

Then we also, all who have loved him and waited for him, "shall appear with him in glory," Is. xxv.