This morning I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Acts as we're continuing our study in the book of Acts chapter 11. And we are looking together at a shorter section here, verses 19 through 30. Next time, since my children ask me, Dad, when are we getting to the section where Herod is eaten by worms? That is next time. So we will be looking at Acts chapter 12 next time. I really think that's a fascinating section. I didn't want to jump too far today because it really shows how Satan used civil opposition to the spread of the gospel and how the Lord overcame that in surprising ways. So we'll look at that next week. But particularly now we have this little section here of how the church was functioning and growing and such a helpful little section. We'll begin at verse 19 this morning of Acts chapter 11, page 1170 in your Bibles. Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. and the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number who believed turned to the Lord the report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch when he came and saw the grace of God he was glad and exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose for he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith and a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul and when he 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. Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch and one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world this took place in the days of claudius so the disciples determined everyone according to his ability to send relief to the brothers living in judea and they did so sending it to the elders by the hand of barnabas and saul and there is the reading of god's word well one of the things that we have been learning in acts is that we're not in control of much of anything are we if the church were left to us you ever thought about if the church were left to us what we would create what would it become what would it look like well i think you could say initially that it would be something that lacks authenticity something that we would create that would not be real something nominal something that only is what we have to put into it something that is really only about outwardly keeping up with the joneses just so long as we're there and we could create a cultural sort of phenomenon that's what we would create everything that's most comfortable for us we know that we've seen that we've studied that but when the lord is doing the building and i emphasize that because the scriptures say if anything is going to happen that is worthwhile the lord has to be doing the building if the lord is doing the building something beautiful begins to happen and guess what it is authenticity it's real i want you to notice for the first time in the bible we have something said that should have really stood out to you in this passage really stood out guess what it is verse 25 the disciples were first called christians in antioch that's remarkable here's the first introduction of christians it's a big moment in acts that's why i didn't want to jump too far too quickly because what this means is we've been working to get here we've been working to get here to put a spotlight on christians they saw people you'll notice here genuinely committed to christ there were certain observable things in these believers in antioch that other religious groups never could achieve they never really did and it really helps us this morning because we have to take a moment and ponder this what the lord is building what christianity is to look like what the church exists for and to have us pursue the same thing today that's why this is here to have us and that's why it's somewhat challenging because this is probably going to be one of the most practical sermons you'll get out of the book of acts right here this morning the text is is is prompting us to think about this they were first called christians in antioch what happened in antioch for them to get that designation that's the that's that's the thing we should ask what happened in antioch for them to get this and earn this this name christian well that's where we are particularly today in this this passage and you'll see a few things that are said here to demonstrate what these people saw that demonstrated and marked real Christians, authentic Christians, true Christians. First, they spoke of Jesus. Second, they cared about discipleship. And third, they loved one another. It's pretty basic, isn't it? They spoke of Jesus, they cared about discipleship, and they loved one another. It's a beautiful witness that's here provided, and that's what I want to explore with you this morning in this brief section of Acts. We are about to move to Paul's here missionary journeys in the book of Acts. We're going to transition here shortly of now the focus of the gospel going out to the Gentiles. But here we close out Peter's story at the end of chapter 11 and 12. And we have two sections that are really showing us the expansion of the church and opposition to the church. The opposition is really beginning here in this section with the famine and then next time with civil problems. But you see here what I'm particularly focusing on is the expansion of the church, the growth of the church. How was the church expanding and what was happening so that this spotlight is put on their great expansion? And it's a beautiful section today because it has been a struggle in the book of Acts to bring Jew and Gentile together. That's where we've been. That's what we've been studying. The struggle of Jew and Gentile to get along. But the Lord has overcome. And you'll see it beautifully here in this passage. In the last scene, you had a remarkable section with Cornelius, who was the figure to really open up the door to the Gentiles. It's a marvel. God used an Orthodox Jew and Paul to be the missionary to the Gentiles, and then he used Peter to open the door through the conversion of Cornelius. So it's just been remarkable to even study the structure of all of this. In the last section, you'll remember the circumcision party was really bothered that Peter had been sitting with Gentiles. And after the whole thing happened and after Cornelius had been saved and Peter had explained to them what the Holy Spirit spoke and what the Holy Spirit was doing, you had a big aha moment and they said, well then, God has granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life. Beautiful. They're starting to accept it. But I want to put that scene back in your head for a moment. Peter, a Jewish man, with all of his Jewish customs, with all of his Jewish blood, walks into the house, remember, and it's packed with Gentile. As he speaks the gospel of the kingdom, the Holy Spirit fell and baptized them all. Peter right then and there has a big heart change, doesn't he? Peter came to the conviction where he essentially said, now I get Pentecost. Now I understand the promise of Pentecost. Now I see God would baptize the nations with the Holy Spirit and the gospel of Jesus. He fully now grasped what was happening. He would make the 2-1. He would make the 2-1, Jew and Gentile. Well, now we have a giant picture of that in the church. That's what this next scene is. The church where Jew and Gentile have become one. Look at verse 19. Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching to no one but the Jews only. You'll remember back after the death of Stephen that persecution had broke out in the church. and at jerusalem and that forced the diaspora of jews to go out as far as these regions into gentile territory it was a huge point back at the end of chapter 7 and the beginning of 8 that it was persecution that woke up the church it was persecution that had got it kick-started in the mission of fulfilling the great commission that acts is all about when the church is too comfortable, when the church is untested, when the church is not committed, when the church is unconvicted, nothing happens. Nothing. But God used persecution to spread the gospel. So we're back to that thought. I spent time developing that, but I want to make sure that we see this is what's happened. That's what forced them out. That's what pried them out of jerusalem but notice something here they went out from jerusalem preaching you catch it only to the jews now you could say well that's the structure of acts it was first to the jews and then to the gentiles but we're now in gentile territory the the the jews were still struggling themselves they hadn't come to the peter moment yet with the purpose of pentecost preaching only to the jews men of jerusalem acts too their people now the first thing to say here i find remarkable though in commendation of the whole thing is these were not the apostles as these christians were forced out they understood the importance of talking about jesus there were a lot of people scattered you'll notice that that it leaves it open-ended there uh in verse 19 now those who were scattered it was a great number after the persecution these went out speaking these went out speaking actually showing us the commitment of these early believers to speak there was real missionary zeal and and it's important to say that the church spread this way the church flourished this way i never can get out of my head the demoniac who when he was healed and he had been in the tombs cutting himself and when he was healed he came to Jesus and did not want to leave Jesus and the thing that Jesus said to him was you go and you tell others the wonderful things that God has done for you. It's a beautiful statement. You don't have to always go tell them what he's going to do for everyone else. Tell them what he did for you. Talk about it. Talk about it. If anyone has emphasized from here the ministry of of those specifically sent to preach the gospel because i believe in our day that has been lost it's you know i've done that over and over and over of the importance of the sent pastors acts is helping us also to keep balanced with something else it encourages us to show us that all of God's people were concerned to speak of Jesus. All of them. And that's how the church spread. What is outlined before you is how the church expanded. This was nothing that was forced. In other words, yeah, persecution pried them out, but the speaking of Jesus was natural. These people wanted to talk about the message that changed them. There was a research piece by Barna this week that came out. And the title was, When was the last time you had a conversation about God? The article said, for most people, the unfortunate and surprising answer to that question is, not very often. Spiritual conversations are exceedingly rare for most Americans. And even for Christians, who are at best reluctant to have them. Three in ten Christians who have had a conversation about faith say evangelism is the local church's responsibility. Why are Christians so reluctant to talk about their faith? Well, I think the article's right when it says, the overarching cultural trends of secularism relativism pluralism and the digital age are contributing to a society that is less interested in religion and that has marginalized the place of spirituality in everyday life it goes on to say we're so obsessed and we fear so much of being viewed negatively or judge mill that we zip it up i i can't get away from it the conclusion is very few people are talking about him i think this is a huge point for the church today you want to see the church expand do we i mean it's a real question it's a sincere question or do we want to be tucked away in jerusalem do we want to be closed off or do we want to see the church expand now you know your own heidelberg has taught you to pray in your kingdom come preserve your church and expand it make it grow that's for the purpose of praying thy kingdom come you know the number one way it still happens today is through you everyone recognizes that's how the church grows you say well we're going to get it all figured out we're going to have a pastor who really preaches the word and we're going to get nice buildings and we're going to put everything in place and if you build it they'll come. Right? You've seen Field of Dreams, haven't you? If you build it, they'll come. You could have everything in place. You could have your preaching pastor. You could have a beautiful building. And it will mean nothing until we're changed by the gospel. Until we're born again until life has been given to us and we're overwhelmed by the love of Christ so that life starts happening outside of Jerusalem as we speak the word of the Lord to others remember Cornelius last week that the beautiful thing about Cornelius last week was when he did gather to sit under that word he gathered all his relatives he gathered all his friends and he brought them to here because he was speaking he was telling them we're challenged even more so here that while there was a missionary zeal the jews spoke only to the jews so jews from the diaspora went out and found their own kind and would only talk to them about the gospel and i think what we're seeing here is the lord has a much bigger plan than that doesn't he this is an important point that's also emphasized here because you'll notice that right set side by side that here is that some other men though a great uh but is put there other men from cyprus and cyrene who when they came to antioch they spoke to the hellenists those are the greeks and they preached the lord jesus they spoke of jesus so you had two things going on here you had the jews from the diaspora going out and talking only to the jews about jesus and and talking about the word and then you had some of those from cyprus and cyrene going out and talking to the greeks about jesus but here's what i love that's emphasized here antioch becomes the uniting outpost you know antioch was one of the largest cities in the roman empire you had rome you had alexandria you had ephesus and and antioch was up there you know what the lord did those of the dispersion went out and spoke only to the jews those of cyrene cyprus went out and spoke to the greeks and guess what happened in antioch a church formed of both of the groups together it's really an amazing moment in the book of acts for the two formed together as one in Antioch the church in Antioch in God's providence now for the first time united together Jews and Greeks enjoying table fellowship with each other so much so that this event at Antioch would lead to the Jerusalem council they had to deal with this and it would cause problems of getting together wait a minute wait a minute they're eating together before we get to the jerusalem council what a moment to stop and think about something that's so beautiful here isn't it they came together there's one phrase that should stand out to you the hand of the lord was with them and a great number turned to the lord great numbers came in it's actually said twice in this little section what it's saying is the lord's hand was flourishing and blessing the project and he was bringing the church together and i couldn't get this thought out of my head this week as i was working on this sermon and preparing this sermon i was kept thinking about since we've recently gone through uh the heidelberg on prayer and thought about how much prayer means i couldn't get away from what we were something that we were taught when we say give us this day our daily bread you remember the answer to this listen to this do take care of all of our physical needs so that we may come to know that you are the only source of everything good and that neither our work and worry nor your gifts can do us any good without your blessing this is so important it's so important to the church it's so important to everything. We worry about a lot. We worry about the church today. We worry about the state of the church. We worry of where are the people. We worry about our schools. Where are the students? We sit down and we're going to figure this out. We're going to figure this out. We have the same mentality. Build it, they'll come. Build it, they'll come. With all this building, and with all the flood of institutions and churches in our day, how's it going? Not very well. Not very well. Does anyone ever stop and say, you know, we're worried about this. Maybe we're missing what's most important. Without the Lord's blessing, everything we're doing matters not a thing. Why are we in the state that we're in? I would suggest to you that often what we find in the hearts of people where the hand of the blessing is not, the Lord is not there, is deadness to the gospel. Deadness. Under the guise of a Christian name, we have our own projects in Jerusalem, but zeal for the Lord and zeal for the gospel, absent. Maybe the Lord's not central in our projects. This is something very important today. He did not build the church apart from the missionary passion and zeal of His people. Do you understand that? The desire to know Christ. It's got to be in us. If not, you'll watch all your kingdom projects crumble and you'll scratch your head. What's going on? It's got to be in you. It's got to be. And yet, what stands before us is constantly the Lord telling us, unless the Lord builds the house, all your projects are in vain. It doesn't happen apart from a convicted, committed people born again, alive by the Spirit, who are going to talk about the wonderful works of God in their lives. The hand of the Lord is upon that. And look at the fruit. Unity begins to happen. not a dwindling away in the dying of things but a building up of things a unity in what's most important table fellowship growth because priorities are there commitments there authentic christianity is there that's that's the first point here isn't it what you see is the missionary zeal to speak of jesus and the hand of the lord is upon that the hand of the lord is upon that but get a people who have no knowledge and just keeping up with the tradition of the elders it'll die all of it second authentic christianity shows itself in a commitment to discipleship the lord had just set up the greatest missionary outposts in antioch and reports are getting out that many are being added to the lord but the whole thing needs some oversight doesn't it and and we see the principle here of missionaries now being sent missionaries going out to the outpost mission when the lord's doing a work and and they're sending out and so you see in verse 22 then the report about them was heard by the church in jerusalem and they sent out barnabas to travel as far as antioch when he arrived and saw the grace of god he was glad and encouraged all of them to remain true to the lord with a firm resolve of heart for he was a good man full of the holy spirit and of faith and large numbers of people were added to the lord there it goes again it's really connected with the previous point in discipleship but it's an expansion of that it's just beautiful barnabas his name was really joseph but everyone gave him the name Barnabas which meant son of encouragement this became the name that everyone began to call him because this guy was such an encourager in the early church obviously the right man went out listen to his character how many times do you read of somebody being called good like this in the bible and that's the last way you can't call anyone good you can't call anyone he's good not justification good that's what i'm talking about he's a good man it's really remarkable language isn't it a good man full of goodness full of the holy spirit and faith this is who you want sent out listen to his encouragement he sees god's grace he sees the hand of the lord falling on the church in Antioch and what is the response the man is overjoyed about this he's the a great example of and Barnabas will dwindle out in terms of a name he's a perfect example of let me decrease in Christ increase it's all about the the glory of Christ and the advancement of his church he is overjoyed that the Lord has done a work there and the son of encouragement encourages him how listen to this to remain to uh for a true to the lord with a firm resolve of heart again authentic it's heart christianity head and heart together keep a remaining heart to the lord that was the heart of his message that was the heart of his encouragement what does that tell you well it tells you that there was an awareness that when the lord does the work there's a lot of initial sight excitement and joy there's a first love in a body there's a it's like philippians the same thing happened at philippi when the church originally formed same thing happened at ephesus a first love kind of phenomenon but it can dwindle you know this if there's ever time to talk about this it's now because what is being emphasized here in the early church was what? What did you just hear from Barnabas? Commitment in the long run. Commitment. I posted this and some of you saw it, but I know I've said this before and I'm speaking kind of extemporaneously now and I could get somewhat in trouble, but I'm not going to, I don't think. We just celebrated the birthday of Garrett Hofstede. 100 years old. and i i think it's always important because paul says study the examples in front of you of commitment in the long run you know commitment in the long run this generation's dying out right in front of us some of you look at your parents who are pillars in the faith what do you see faith in christ a talking about jesus in these pillars a love for the truth and the most rare one today too a commitment to christ's church to be in worship whenever it's called now you're going to call that stuffy and old are you going to say this is something we ought to look at because it's what Barnabas is saying stay true in the long run commitment commitment it's beautiful notice these examples in front of you that are dying off I love this generation I'm gonna miss you when you're gone I hope we can pick up the baton I really do. I worry about it. But as I said, I shouldn't. I have been, in the course of the ministry, burned so many times on people who are here today and gone tomorrow. If I could look at this church and all the people that have been in and out of here in six years since I've been here, if they all stayed, you wouldn't be able to fit them right now in this new building. that's what i've known that's what i see this is an overwhelmingly helpful passage because we need barnabases to come alongside people you know the hardships you know the professions of faith and when people actually stand up in front of us and are brand new to it all once the mundane happens once the hardships come in life once the normal comes once the devil comes and attacks and make people question the whole thing we've seen it hearts don't remain true and steadfast to the lord i'm not saying salvation can be lost i'm saying we've seen this phenomenon over and over again we've lived the parable of the sower over and over again of seeds that sprout up quickly and are gone so what do you need barnabas a lot more sons of encouragement in the church one of the gifts of the spirit is encouragement but it's people who realize that discipleship is not just about the commitment to somebody who's new to the faith it's commitment in the church in the long haul to befriend to care and to love them and who have the vision of how to help them the heart of his discipleship was to think through how to help new Christians to stay true to it all notice what Barnabas did when he saw what the Lord did he said i know someone who can help that guy named saul i'm going to get him so he travels as far as tarsus to get saul and found him and brought him to antioch now listen to the next verse this is beautiful and for a whole year they met with the church and taught but large numbers what did they do they taught them they catechized them this is the heart of discipleship you know what this did it ignited a hunger in antioch numbers are gathering to listen to them teach we balk at catechism we've been here a long time balk at catechism we balk at memorization this was no burden to the early christian when i went to college you know i attended a small church and i've shared this once or twice along the way with you they were a non-denominational bible church they had no no uh what we some people would think is reform baggage they're going through romans pastor's preaching the word he didn't even know there was this thing called reform the church didn't know there was this thing called reform they're going through romans and they get to 9 through 11 and they're they're getting it they're eating it up and they're they're saying to themselves what's going on here we're seeing things that nobody else is teaching something started to happen it ignited in that church a fire for the word of god and then they found out that there was a reformed body out there that they united with so the whole church pastor and all out of a non-to-non bible church became an opc up there so i'm at humboldt state at this time playing basketball and i tried the rocking out worship i tried it i really gave it an honest go and my grandma said to me go go to this church check it out and i heard the pastor preaching the word giving himself to the word i was made alive by that message if you ask me when was i born again by the spirit and when did i have a conversion that followed or i understood it it was at 21 years old church boy you know what kept me it was the people after church you know what they were doing they were in the back with their Bibles open. I had never seen that. Hashing out the scriptures. It affected me the same way because a man came alongside me, a Barnabas. I've never shared his name with you, I'll just say it. His name is David Whitmire. He helped me so much. I would not be here today doing what I do without that man. I can say that in all confidence. He had such a knowledge of the scriptures. I have a lot of people i respect in this place i don't know that i've ever seen a layman like this with that much knowledge of the scriptures he knew the whole bible and he was an encourager and i to this day look back and say that's what i wanted that's what i wanted i wanted that i wanted his joy i wanted his understanding i wanted his knowledge of the scriptures but i have to say that at least for my family growing up going to church was merely a cultural endeavor it's sad when the new among us are taken by the truth and we in the church life the whole life aren't sad notice here a church that demonstrates any kind of authenticity will have a love for the Scriptures, a love for its confession, a love for what it believes, and leaders that realize the hunger of the truth has to be satisfied with Barnabas' and Saul's who give themselves to teach. And lo and behold again, hand of the Lord's upon it, things bursting. It's growing. But it's right here at this point that we read something powerful. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. That's not a term of endearment. You understand that? You realize what it's saying to us? The people in the region looked at them and said, what is that? What is that? They're Christ followers. So we're going to call them Christians because that's all they talk about. I can't get over that moment. we see what it is. This is not them self-designating. This is the world designating what they see. They're Christians. Why do you call yourself Christian? Heidelberg Catechism 32. Because I am a member of Christ by faith. That I may confess His name, speak, and that I may present myself a living sacrifice of thanksgiving to Him. Well, that's what you see here. They're Christian. Well, one more little brief point I want to emphasize today. They showed they were Christians by the way that they cared for one another, loved one another. The conflicts begin to happen here, expansion and conflict. In those days, some of the prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. Then one of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine throughout the Roman world. This took place during the time of Claudius. Again, you have historical markers here telling us and that can be proven. They even know this famine took place under Claudius. So each of the disciples, according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brothers who lived in Judea. They did this, sending it to the elders by means of Barnabas and Saul. Prophets, like apostles, still existed in the infancy of the church. He gave some to be apostles and prophets. The Lord, through Agabus, said there's going to be a famine. Why? Why tell him? He could have solved the problem himself. Could have stopped the famine himself. Why did he tell him there's going to be a famine? He did this, and something wonderful happened. The Gentile church sends relief to Judea. Come on. They weren't wealthy. Through Paul and Barnabas, who make their way down through the relief, it is given. And you see here a particular care in acts of Christians for Christians, but love that is genuine and authentic. If people had treated you this way, the last thing you want to do is help them. But the Jerusalem church was making progress. And they had sent Barnabas. And this church says, you're in trouble. We're going to help you. How can we bring the love we know to others? Was the question. One pastor said, it's interesting to observe. They did not ask, how much do they need? Which is often a pretext for saying, how little can we get away with giving? Their love was demonstrated sincerely. And if there was any lingering problems between Judea and Antioch, boy, this was all solved, wasn't it? That's what love does. When you reach the hand this way, in a conflicting situation, you promote love and the church is bound together even more. These Christians spoke the name of Jesus. They gave themselves to discipleship and they showed genuine love. And lo and behold, Jesus blessed them and grew them. It's a really remarkable and beautiful section, isn't it? And in the process, they earned the name Christian. That's the summary of today's message. The gospel has been so wonderful. The Lord has been so wonderful to you in His gospel. He's loved you. He's helped you. He's forgiven you. He's given you His Son to die for you. Do you understand how much has been given to you? Do you see His love? Do you know it? I think we can learn a lot from this today. But it will first come by realizing how much we need the grace of God in our lives. How much we need the cross of Christ. And when his love is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he's given to us, this kind of authentic Christianity follows. And I keep emphasizing authentic because that's what everyone's looking for today. Something real. What beautiful goals to strive for in the Escondido URC. May God give us grace in this way to fulfill the witness he left us for here on the earth. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for helping us today. It challenges us in many ways. For often, our projects, the things that we're doing, are devoid of you. And then we wonder why they fall apart. We've not stopped and asked the most important questions. And when we look at Acts here and we see how the church flourished and functioned, we see some beautiful things at work. And it's not rocket science. A commitment to the making known of the name of Jesus. A commitment of people to discipleship and a commitment to love by which all men will know we are your disciples. We fail. We need your help. But we also are asking for your hand to fall upon us and build us strong. But we also know it will come through a people who are receiving and energetic of your truth. of knowing You, of understanding, and are thankful so much for the grace that they have been given. Help us, Lord, for we're weak. And may we be called by others authentic Christians. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.