What does Acts 11:26 mean?

The irony of this moment is exquisite. The young church in Jerusalem largely grew in peace for some time—although the disciples were arrested a couple of times and beaten twice (Acts 2—5). When Stephen was murdered (Acts 7:54–60), a young Pharisee-in-training named Saul took it upon himself to eradicate the Jesus-followers not just from Jerusalem, but from any Jewish space in the Roman Empire (Acts 8:1–3; 9:1–2). On his way to Damascus to arrest Jewish Jesus-followers, he found Jesus and realized how wrong he had been (Acts 9:3–19).

Saul quickly switched teams. He debated with the Jews in Damascus and Jerusalem, showing them how Jesus of Nazareth was the Jewish Messiah. He caused such a commotion in Jerusalem that some of the Hellenist Jews wanted to kill him so the apostles sent him home to Tarsus, on the southeastern coast of modern-day Asia Minor (Acts 9:19–31).

The damage, so to speak, was already done. While the apostles and other church leaders stayed in Jerusalem during the earlier persecution, many of the laity fled, spreading the story of Jesus to Judea, Samaria, Damascus, and far to the north in Syrian Antioch. When the church leaders in Jerusalem hear that the gospel has even spread to Gentiles in Antioch, they send Barnabas to check it out. Barnabas realizes the conversions are real and far more extensive than he can handle alone (Acts 11:19–25). Fortunately, Tarsus is just west of Antioch.

So, the man who, through his persecution of the church, caused the spread of the gospel to Gentiles in Antioch is now in Antioch teaching the Jewish and Gentile Jesus-followers and spreading the gospel further.

This verse notes some of the origins of the term "Christian." It was almost certainly coined by non-Christian Gentiles. Although "Christ" is Greek, "-ian" is a Latin addition, as in Marian or Herodian. This suffix means "of the party of…" and was used to mean those who imitated or supported some figure. To some extent, this made the term "Christian" an expression of sarcasm or derision. Peter hints at this in his writings (1 Peter 4:16).

Elsewhere in the New Testament, only King Agrippa (Acts 26:28) and Peter (1 Peter 4:16) use the term "Christian." It would take a long time before the label passed from insult to identification. Typically, believers in the New Testament use words like disciples, saints, and brothers. Jews of that time used "the sect of the Nazarenes" as a slam referring to the saying "nothing good comes from Nazareth" (Acts 24:5; John 1:46). They wouldn't use the Greek word for Messiah, even jokingly, for those they considered heretics.