Unknown: The text this morning comes from Acts as we make our way through the Acts of the Apostles, but really the Acts as you know of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of his Spirit, through the Apostles.
Unknown: But the Acts of the Apostles, I guess, fit better on the book, but think that's a better title.
Unknown: We're in Acts chapter 11. We'll be finishing chapter 11 this morning, Lord willing. We're going to look at verses 19 through 30 through the end of the chapter there Acts chapter 11, beginning in verse 19. We're we read, let's go to the Lord in prayer, our Father, we need you to work unless we labor in vain, Lord, we need you to open up our eyes and pour out Your Spirit upon us and open up our deaf ears, that we might hear of Christ, that we might see our sin and might receive Christ by faith. Lord, you must do it. We are dead in our sins and trespasses, and we need life. Give us life in Christ. Give us more. Give us more of Christ, make us Christians. And it's in Jesus's name we pray, Amen.
Unknown: People of God, hear God's word for us from Acts chapter 11, beginning in verse 19.
Unknown: 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 to turn 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 he 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 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. 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.
Unknown: So the disciples determined everyone according to his ability to send relief to to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul, He who has ears, let him hear the Word of God. Please be seated. It's typically not a good idea to start your sermon. Start talking about your father-in-law. But I'm going to do it.
Unknown: My father-in-law is notorious for coming up with nicknames for his grandchildren and even his own children.
Unknown: He has Rue chopper, yo-yo, Tikki, Hobart and even some others, and they, many of them, are just made up words, and maybe that's familiar to you.
Unknown: Maybe you have someone in your life who has come up with a nickname for for you, and you've come to love it as a term of affection, maybe that was your parents or a friend or a grandparent, like my father in law does for my children and grandchildren. Nicknames we, many of us, love. There are nicknames, though. However, some of you have that maybe you don't love so much. And did you know that the Bible actually is full of nicknames.
Unknown: Abram gets nicknamed Abraham, meaning Father of Many, Jacob, who would be called then Israel, meaning one who struggles with God. James and John were nicknamed the Sons of Thunder because of their fiery disposition. And even Simon, who would be called Peter, that is rock.
Unknown: Our text acts has nicknames in it as well. We see another one, Joseph, who was nicknamed Barnabas because he was called the Son of Encouragement. We also have, Christians.
Unknown: Maybe this is your nickname, and it wasn't originally a compliment, and we'll look a little bit more as it as we work through our text. It was a way to mark these people out and even to mock them. There goes these Christ people over there.
Unknown: But instead of running from the name, the church would wear it gladly, and it would even be a badge of honor for all who were called Christians as their alliance, Alliance, allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what does it mean to be a Christian? Well, we just read it in the Heidelberg Catechism. But you know what? The sermon is not over. There's more to it, and we're going to look at what it means to be a Christian from this text. I think we'll see three things. There's probably more, but at least three that we're going to see that what it means to be a Christian, that someone who is called Christ, and who would claim that name of Christian is someone who is a proclaiming person, proclaiming people, would be the first part.
Unknown: The second would be they're Christ people, and the last that they are people that love Christ and love his church and love Christ's people.
Unknown: So let's look at that as we work through this text, first proclaiming people. We see that in verses 19 through 21 the text begins, though, with a reminder that Stephen has been murdered.
Unknown: He's been murdered, and it was evil and it was wrong that that happened. Wasn't it a great evil, but it's also, as we heard from our elder, Hatcher Nathan, Hatcher, God's sovereign, and it was in God's sovereign plan for Stephen to be martyred and to be killed.
Unknown: And what we see the result of that is that it pries the church out of Jerusalem to be scattered, the persecuted church, God forces out, kicks the door down, that they are now scattering out through the world, that the Great Commission is going to occur when we see that our Sovereign Lord, as you heard, using great evil for his great purposes, that's the ultimate example, is the cross, right? There is no more greater evil, there is no more greater persecution, perversion and wickedness than what happens at the cross. But did God use the Cross for his glory and your good? And we say yes, and many did. And so that we take courage in that, knowing that whatever evil maybe you are facing right now, persecution, or whatever circumstances happening in life, God is still using that for His glory and even your good, your sanctification, or maybe, like here in our text, that you might actually open up your mouth now and be witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ now the Jewish people, we are told they are scattering from Jerusalem, and they are scattering into Gentile cities.
Unknown: We're told, like Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, however, our text tells us that they, as they are scattering. They're only sharing the gospel with other Jews.
Unknown: They're still struggling to under understand the ramifications of Pentecost and what happened in what happened there in the church, and that that reminds us of Peter, who is still trying to figure all what happened there in Pentecost, and even God given him a vision recently that that you know that he can eat what's clean, and they call no man unclean, and this whole Cornelius thing. And we'll see Peter is continuing to wrestle with what's happening at Pentecost, or what happened he understood that the word needs to go out. And I think maybe even the church understands the word needs to go out, but maybe they are still envisioning that it's just a larger, more refined Israel, but not exactly sure. Is still how these Gentiles are fitting into the picture. Maybe, though, are they still going to become Jews? And you have this whole circumcision party that is happening in Jerusalem, and they're still trying to sort out God's plan, but the gospel isn't stopped, despite the hesitancies of the early church, the Gentiles and cypress hear the Gospel, believe the gospel, embrace the gospel, start sharing the gospel, and our text now focuses on a city called Antioch. Antioch is one of the greatest cities in the first century in the Roman Empire. It's estimated to have about a half million people within its bounds. That's bigger than current day Tampa, by the way, Antioch is first century.
Unknown: Antioch is bigger than current Tampa, and there.
Unknown: Was only two other cities in the first century that had more people and had greater importance than Antioch, and that would have been Rome itself, and then Alexandria, and then followed, then by Antioch.
Unknown: Antioch was known for a city that had great wealth, its culture, its sophistication, but it was also known for its immorality. It was a cosmopolitan, multicultural hub of the first century, and as we look at verses 19 through 21 I want you to notice who is it that is speaking the Word of God, in Antioch, who is doing it, who is preaching, who is proclaiming, who is opening up their mouth to speak.
Unknown: And you know what we don't know, but what we do know is it's not the apostles here.
Unknown: These are no name ministers.
Unknown: These are ordinary, regular people who have moved to Antioch, and they just start sharing Christ proclaiming. What about Christ?
Unknown: Well, probably very similar to messages we've heard about from Peter, the life of Jesus, the righteous life that he lived for you, the death of Jesus, him dying for all of your sins, not in part, but the whole he they were nailed on the cross for you, The resurrection of Jesus, living and reigning now Jesus ascended, Jesus and then coming again at Jesus. You know, every time that we've heard a sermon by Peter, it's had these those elements in it, the life, death, resurrection, reigning and return of Christ. And that's what they're sharing, and that's what we ought to share as well. We share Christ.
Unknown: We share Jesus.
Unknown: How did the gospel first get to Tampa? Do you know? No one knows. And you know what? It doesn't matter, because it doesn't matter who gets the glory, except Christ.
Unknown: And that's the point here. It doesn't matter who's sharing it in Antioch. We don't care who their names are. We're going to show up in heaven, and you're going to find and meet a lot of people who you've never heard their names before, but you will see the great impact that they have had on the kingdom, and let that be us. Who cares about our name. Who cares who we are, but that Christ might be known, that is what matters. This is what John the Baptist said, Let us decrease, let me increase, so that he might increase.
Unknown: It's not about our glory, but it's about his name, because it is his name that is above all names. It is that his name every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Unknown: The gospel is not meant to stay within our walls. Here, the Gospel breaks down walls. It shows no partiality, as we've been learning, and it goes to the furthest people that you think are the furthest from the gospel, who would never embrace the gospel. This is, this is often where the Gospel goes and whom God is pleased to save. And the gospel has come to this city of Antioch, this great city, and it's also, I think here, in this first part, it's also challenging us to, then again, to think beyond our own preferences of who should be in the church. Who would we prefer to be in our church?
Unknown: That's not how God works. Who are we hesitant to share the gospel with because of maybe cultural or social or personal discomfort, and this text is just encouraging us again. We must share Christ. Christ has to be presented. The Gospel must go forward, and God will save verse 21 and at the hand, then the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord, the hand of the Lord, this is a picture that a reference to the power of God was with them and their evangelistic efforts as they spoke. Now we might be able to fill a church, and people do fill a church, but, you know, filling the church is not the goal.
Unknown: The goal is people turning to the Lord, but we need God to do that, or we're just like the prophet Ezekiel, and we have faith.
Unknown: Build churches, and either a dead message is going out or you just have bones in the pew, graveyards in the pew, speaking the dead men.
Unknown: But we need God to work. But God uses the power of His Word preached of Christ, living, crucified, resurrected, reigning and returning to then enliven dead men and women like ourselves. It is the power of God, the hand of God, to give us life and praise the Lord, because, apart from that, we are dead and there is no hope. But here we see God working through the power of His Word to braise people from the dead and bring people to Himself, even in a great immoral city like Antioch, which will eventually here be The hub of missionary outreach in the first century, we are also to be Christ people.
Unknown: Christ people in verses 22 to 24 verse 22 there's a report that comes now to the church in Jerusalem about what's happening in Antioch. People are being saved in Antioch, a great number of people are being saved in Antioch, and it reaches the church in Jerusalem.
Unknown: And what's interesting is, the church in Jerusalem doesn't see itself as just an independent entity or somehow disconnected from what's happening in Antioch. They see themselves as one, and they send Barnabas to check things out, what's happening there, what's going on. And remember Barnabas again, not his real name, but a nickname. His real name was Joseph, but the apostles gave that to him because he's the son of encouragement, and he's the right man for this job.
Unknown: Because think about when we were starting our church. Remember that some of you when we were starting our church and we had men come check on us, didn't we?
Unknown: And in fact, even before we were particularized as a church, we even had some other men from other congregations be on our overseeing session. We had men from Gainesville, we had men from Oviedo. And you know what they didn't do? They didn't come in and say, you know, this church in Tampa needs to look exactly like our church in Gainesville and Oviedo. What did they do?
Unknown: They saw the grace to the Lord here, and they encouraged us.
Unknown: And they tell they told us to press on. They spurred us on to remain faithful to the Lord. I think that's what we see Barnabas do here. He doesn't show up at Antioch and start critiquing and say, All right, here's how the church in Antioch seems to look more like the church in Jerusalem, he encourages them. The gospel is there. Christ is there, the spirit is there, and he encourages them.
Unknown: And the people are being added to the Lord.
Unknown: And note, it's it's the believers relationship to Christ that puts them in connection with the church, not the believers, connection with the church, that puts them in saving relationship to Christ. If you love Christ, you come and you're part of his church. Verse 24 tells us a little bit more about Barnabas, which is very interesting. It says he's a good man who is good but God, right.
Unknown: So what does this mean? What?
Unknown: But why are they saying this about Barnabas things for the Holy Spirit and of faith? Well, I think it's what happens actually next with Barnabas, that these terms come into a little bit of a better focus.
Unknown: The Holy Spirit is clearly working in Antioch, that the church is growing rapidly. The church needs help.
Unknown: What's interesting is that Barnabas doesn't just say, you know, there's a great thing happening here. The church is really growing. We're going to have this big, mega church here, and I'm the man. I'm the man for this job. And you know, probably the church should be thankful that I'm the one that's here and encouraging them, and they should be grateful here I am. He realizes that building this congregation is not about making a platform for himself, not making his recognition great.
Unknown: It's not about him.
Unknown: He puts the needs of the church before his own advancement and self aggrandizement. And he serves the church, and he serves Christ. And he sees gifts actually in another, another person, maybe even a forgotten person, to the church whose name was Saul. He says that the church needs Saul. He.
Unknown: It says he goes to look. And that term look is not just he just going to show up in Antioch. It's actually he's hard to find. This is the term like for seeking, for searching for something. He goes to, he goes to Tarsus to seek after Saul.
Unknown: Because up until that time, if you might recall, Saul of Tarsus, for the most part, has kind of been written off by most of the church.
Unknown: Saul was responsible for the death of Stephen, as our text started, he was overseen the death of their beloved Deacon, Stephen.
Unknown: But we know the Lord transformed Saul and saved him. They even heard him preach boldly in Damascus and then briefly in Jerusalem, before he then kind of escapes to Tarsus. But he's been in Tarsus now at least seven years, maybe up to 10 years, and we haven't heard anything from him.
Unknown: He's been studying the scriptures, no doubt, but I bet he was very lonely.
Unknown: Paul will tell us himself in Philippians chapter three, he had suffered the loss of all things, all the other Pharisees, and certainly his family would have disowned him for being a Christian now, and even the church has not really embraced him. They've kept him kind of on the fringes, because we've heard they don't really trust him.
Unknown: There are many in the church who really don't think that he's converted, or they're still angry at what he did to Stephen.
Unknown: So he's part of the church, but he's not really in the church, right? And if it hadn't been for God working through Barnabas, Paul would have just stayed in Tarsus. But look, it says Barnabas took him. It doesn't say Barnabas sent him. It doesn't say that Barnabas referred to him. It says Barnabas took Saul, we're going, God has a plan for you, Saul, and it's to preach the word here in Antioch, the church needs you, Saul, you need to open up your mouth and preach. Saul, the church needs you to be witnesses.
Unknown: We have to go now.
Unknown: And we actually then Barnabas new role will then be to encourage Saul. And we actually see a shift even in the order of the names in in our text, in verse 30, you see it is Barnabas and Saul. And if you flip the chapter 13, just a couple chapters later, the order shifts then to Paul and Barnabas.
Unknown: Barnabas is decreasing. Why? So that the gospel might go forth, that Christ might be made known.
Unknown: It's not about him.
Unknown: So Barnabas and Saul, they show up to Antioch now and then they just immediately put their ministry plan together. They come up with a vision statement, and they implement it. Now. What does it say? What do they do?
Unknown: They just start studying the Bible. We're hungry. Feed us.
Unknown: Feed us. You know, appetite is a sign of health, isn't it?
Unknown: When someone loses their appetite and they're no longer eating, it's a sign something's not right, something's very, very wrong.
Unknown: And here we see the church in Antioch. They're devouring the Word of God. We want it more. We have to study God's Word. We have to know it is that our disposition, like little baby birds, more more, give us more of the word, and that transforms their lives.
Unknown: And as they are studying the Bible together, the people in Antioch give these believers a nickname, we're told, Christians, and it was more of a dismissive label, like those Christ people, those Christ people. But why this nickname?
Unknown: You know, we could be called a lot of things, but, you know, they could have called them these kind people, these servant people, these helpful people, these civil people, but they're called Christ people. They're called Christians. Why? Because they are obsessed with Christ.
Unknown: Everywhere they go. They are studying Christ. They are speaking of Christ.
Unknown: Christ. They are following the Christ. We trust in the Christ we love the Christ Christians Antioch is like we're tired of those Christ people, those Christians always talking, constantly telling us about the Christ.
Unknown: Does that describe our church?
Unknown: Does that describe you a Christian heart's yearning, more of Christ, longing for Christ, more of Christ, father give me more.
Unknown: You know, when I go to work, many mornings, I have some children that when they hear that I'm about to go to work, they run to the door, and they throw their arms up and they say, No, don't go.
Unknown: That's a beautiful picture.
Unknown: I have to go to work. Of course you would want me to go to work.
Unknown: The Lord wants me to go to work.
Unknown: But isn't that a wonderful picture? Why don't they want me to go. They want more, more of that. Is that us in our prayers? Are we throwing up our hands and saying, Father, no more. Give me more of Christ. I'm not gonna leave. I'm gonna hold on to you.
Unknown: I'm gonna wrestle with you until I have more.
Unknown: Haven't we failed in that as being Christians.
Unknown: Should we not ask God help us?
Unknown: Help us to be Christians.
Unknown: We need more of Christ. We need more. This is what you have called us. Help us to be who we are. Give us more. Give us more Christ. Christians, this is who we are. It's not just a nickname. This is our identity.
Unknown: This is who we are. Give us more Christ, because if Christ isn't there, and you know this, and I know this, when we stop thinking about Christ, when we stop talking about Christ, when we stop seeing Christ, isn't that exactly when sin comes in?
Unknown: Because Christ is no longer there in our speech and in our thoughts, Satan is not afraid of us.
Unknown: We are nothing, but he trembles at Christ.
Unknown: Make us more Christians Father, let us love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength give us Christ.
Unknown: These are people last that not only they love Christ, but they love his church.
Unknown: And this in verses 25 through 30, there's a real change that we first see that is happening in the church up until this time, everyone who is in the church was either a Jew or Gentile, but no more, a new identity emerges. It's neither now Jew or Gentile, but Christian, because Christian is their new identity. It compels them, then to care for one another, for other Christians. And we see that a prophet ago, this foresees a famine.
Unknown: And this famine actually does occur in 45 ad, a significant flood happens in the Nile River, and it's a disaster for the Egyptian grain harvest, which then sent grain prices soaring throughout the entire Roman Empire. And there was a great famine that was throughout Judea from AD 6046, to 48 for two years. What's interesting is, God tells them there's going to be a famine, but he doesn't tell them what to do when the famine comes.
Unknown: They have to apply the scriptures, what they've been studying, to their circumstances, and that's true for us as well. God doesn't tell us what to do in every circumstance. We have to apply wisdom and the law and other biblical principles to help us figure out how God wants us to live and what He wants us to do. Now, the church in Antioch, they they could have, have just begun hoarding food and materials and prep.
Unknown: Inspiration for the famine. You know, we need to take care of ourselves if we can be any help to others when that time comes.
Unknown: They could even have asked the church in there in Judea, well, how much do you need? But we don't see that question being asked. What do they do? They just start giving.
Unknown: We're just going to give. Use it. Take it. You're going to need it. Use it. What is also interesting, too, it doesn't say that the church in Antioch just started giving to those Jews over there in Jerusalem and Judea. What do they call them brothers?
Unknown: These are my brothers.
Unknown: There's been such tension between Jew and Gentile for so long, but the gospel has brought reconciliation and love and fellowship that they're my brothers. Of course, I'm going to love my brother. Of course, I'm going to make sure that they're taken care of. Of course, I'm going to make sure that they have what they need, and everyone gives. Do you see that everyone gives according to his ability? It's kind of that tithe principle, right in the Old Testament that we see everyone at least gave a 10th to make sure that the Levites were provided for, to make sure the family of God was provided for.
Unknown: But we see everyone here in our Texas is giving to make sure that the brothers are taken care of.
Unknown: It's a beautiful picture of Christian love. Here you have how you have these relating bodies now in Antioch and Jerusalem, and they see themselves as as one in the Lord, that they love Jesus, and they love their people. They they love the church, as Paul would write in First Corinthians, chapter 12. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, the many are one body, so it is with Christ, for in one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves are free, and all were made the drink of the one Spirit. And then you will go even to say, if one member suffers, we all suffer.
Unknown: One's honored. We are all honored. Well, let me just end too with this going back to the nicknames that, you know, during the American Revolution, the the British started calling the American colonists a nickname.
Unknown: Started calling the colonists Yankees. And Yankees was a term that meant someone was was crude and uncivilized. You know what the colonists did?
Unknown: They made a song and said, I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy, and they embraced the song, and it became a term, an anthem of independence.
Unknown: And we even have a major league baseball team called the Yankees. But it's right that it's those northerners up there, right? Those uncivilized people, not for you southerners, you know they're up there. No but the same as us. The world may have first used the term Christians as a slur, but we wear the name Christ with great boldness and not even lightly. It's not even a nickname for us. It is our identity, our allegiance to the risen Lord, the one who loved us and gave himself for us, and who, if by you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the father's face shines upon you with great love, who has washed away all of your sins, all of your doubts, all of your failures.
Unknown: We thank the Lord that He has given us, the Christ. And so now let the world see Christ in you, that we might be accused of being called Christ followers, and say, Amen. May it be more?
Unknown: May it be more, because there is no other name under heaven by which men will be saved. Let's pray.
Unknown: Our Father, we thank you for giving us Jesus at the right time to come and die for our sins and Lord, our sins are many, but the mercy of God, the grace of God found in Christ is so much greater Lord we thank you that in the Lord Jesus, Christ, not only are all of our sins washed away, but his perfect record of righteousness is imputed and given to our account that we are able to stand in your presence.
Unknown: Clothed in the righteous robes of Christ Lord, that is our hope.
Unknown: We thank you for giving us many names, giving us Christians, calling us sons and daughters, calling us friend, But Lord, they are all wonderful and beautiful names, and they are all yes and amen. They are yes ours in Christ. Give us more of Christ today, it's in Jesus's name. We pray. Amen.