Acts 11:27-30 - A prophet named Agabus

11:27

Prophets have always been part of God’s economy in the kingdom. They were around throughout the Old Testament, though sometimes called “seers”, they are part of the church in the New Testament. We see them operating here, they are, of course, mentioned by Paul in Ephesians 4:11, and 1 Corinthians 14 contains quite a lot of instruction on the use of the gift of prophecy. There are abuses of the gift, but this has always been the case, and there are many who think the gift is of no relevance today, or even does not exist. I have to say I cannot see any Biblical case for this. Both specific verse, and the general working of God throughout the Bible suggests that prophecy is a normal part of God’s economy. Anyway, prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch.

11:28

One of the prophets (showing that there were several of them), stood up a told them that there was going to be a famine “throughout the world”. Now it is perfectly reasonable to assume that this means the known world. He did this “by the Spirit”, ie this was not because he was a skilled weather forecaster or anything like that, but the Spirit told him, ie God told him. Now there are those who say the only way God speaks now is through the Bible. This undoubtedly is His primary means of communication, and the most important, and the one to which all others must submit, but that is not the same as saying God will definitely not speak by any other means. If we deny the gift of prophecy, then we are saying that God will never wish to warn any individual or church group of any temporal events again. This, quite frankly, is a ridiculous claim and one for which there is no Biblical evidence whatsoever. There were several famines in the time of the emperor Claudius (AD 41-54).

11:29,30

The disciples of Antioch decided to send aid to the believers in Judea. Antioch was quite a wealthy city, and Judea must have been relatively poor. Note also that the famine was foretold to affect everywhere, so that would include Antioch itself. It was quite common for wealthy people to give to the poor, but here we read that the disciples all decided to give. They gave according to their ability, this is a principle found elsewhere in the New Testament (2 Cor 8:3). So all are involved in giving. It was also important in building unity in the church, the partly Gentile church of Antioch helping the Jewish churches in Judea. We also see that prophecy is given in order to stir to action. Barnabas and Saul were tasked with taking the money.