SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Sermons from the Way Church KC, a community of listening saints in Kansas City following the way of Jesus and pushing back darkness together.
SPEAKER_02: Good morning, everyone.
SPEAKER_02: It's good to see everyone feeling so friendly and chatty this morning.
SPEAKER_02: So I just mentioned to Zach, I said, they're still chatting.
SPEAKER_02: He goes, I love it, but go ahead.
SPEAKER_02: So here we are.
SPEAKER_02: As we prepare to read God's word this morning, I want you to be prepared for another long haul.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: So Zach has given us the whole chapter of Acts 11.
SPEAKER_02: So with me, if you can stand, please stand in honor of the reading of God's Word, Acts chapter 11.
SPEAKER_02: Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the Word of God.
SPEAKER_02: So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, You went to uncriticize uncircumcised men and ate with them.
SPEAKER_02: But Peter began and explained it to them in order.
SPEAKER_02: I was in the city of Dappa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me.
SPEAKER_02: Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air.
SPEAKER_02: And I heard a voice saying to me, Rise, Peter, kill and eat.
SPEAKER_02: But I said, By no means, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.
SPEAKER_02: But the voice answered a second time from heaven.
SPEAKER_02: This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven.
SPEAKER_02: And behold, at that very moment, three men arrived at the house in which we were sent to me from Caesarea.
SPEAKER_02: And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction.
SPEAKER_02: These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house.
SPEAKER_02: And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, Send to Jobbah and bring Simon, who is called Peter.
SPEAKER_02: He will declare to you by a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.
SPEAKER_02: And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as on us at the beginning.
SPEAKER_02: And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?
SPEAKER_02: When they heard these things, they fell silent.
SPEAKER_02: And they glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also, God has granted repentance that leads to life.
SPEAKER_02: Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.
SPEAKER_02: But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenist also, preaching the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: And a great many people were added to the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.
SPEAKER_02: For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.
SPEAKER_02: Now in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them named Agabas stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world.
SPEAKER_02: This took place in the days of Claudius.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: That is this morning's reading of God's word.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, you can be seated.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I get a every time Teresa is our scripture reader, she always gets like a really long section of text.
SPEAKER_01: So I love it.
SPEAKER_01: I feel like, yeah, Teresa's just a great reader.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Well, if we haven't met before, my name is Zach.
SPEAKER_01: I have the privilege of being the lead pastor here at the Way Church KC.
SPEAKER_01: And we are a new church plant who exists to follow the way of Jesus and push back darkness together.
SPEAKER_01: I still consider us new.
SPEAKER_01: We're coming up on two years as a church.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, Lana.
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's been a fun journey, and God's really building a sweet, sweet family here.
SPEAKER_01: And glad that you joined us.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome if this is your first time.
SPEAKER_01: We'd love for you to jump in, to plug in, to become part of our way family.
SPEAKER_01: Got some really good people here.
SPEAKER_01: We are blessed, blessed, blessed.
SPEAKER_01: So we we've been in a series walking verse by verse through the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: And our series is entitled Living by the Spirit and Following the Way.
SPEAKER_01: So Acts, the book of Acts shows us what happens when Christ, when the risen Christ, pours out his spirit and continues his mission through his church.
SPEAKER_01: So we're still living in the book of Acts in a sense.
SPEAKER_01: Today we arrive at Acts chapter 11, as Teresa read, and this chapter, it's pivotal.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, just kind of a little bit of a refresher.
SPEAKER_01: Acts 2 is the birth of the early church.
SPEAKER_01: Acts 10, what we looked at last week, it's the Gentile Pentecost of sorts where the Holy Spirit falls on the Gentiles on non-Jewish people.
SPEAKER_01: Then Acts 11 is kind of the follow-up to this.
SPEAKER_01: It's the church learning how do we how do we process these things?
SPEAKER_01: How do we work through these things?
SPEAKER_01: How do we continue to push God's mission forward?
SPEAKER_01: Remember, last week we we looked at Cornelius and how God appeared to him in a vision and God appeared to Peter in a vision, just kind of reaffirming this inclusion of Gentiles into God's family.
SPEAKER_01: So this story, what we're gonna see today, there's a lot of like follow-up from what we learned in Acts chapter 10.
SPEAKER_01: Um that's why we're looking at the entirety of Acts 11.
SPEAKER_01: So I'll give you some like recap, some refresher for Acts 11, verses 1 through 18, and then we'll really dig into verses 19 through 29 through 30.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know about you guys, but I think that if you look around, we live in a world where algorithms feed us people who already agree with us.
SPEAKER_01: Like oftentimes we live in our own little silos where we're surrounded by people who just simply agree with us, who think the same way, who believe the same way, and all that good stuff.
SPEAKER_01: We sort ourselves out by maybe it's politics, maybe it's education level, maybe it's income bracket, maybe it's uh ethnicity, maybe it's, you know, think about the church, maybe it's like worship style or preaching style.
SPEAKER_01: Like so often we sort ourselves based upon our affinities.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we see in the book of Acts is God breaking down those barriers, the Holy Spirit building a barrier-breaking church.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where we land today in Acts 11.
SPEAKER_01: The question arises: will the gospel stay inside Jewish boundaries?
SPEAKER_01: Or will the church embrace these visions that God gave Peter and Cornelius and really embrace the full implications of Christ's lordship for the church?
SPEAKER_01: Here's our big idea this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Our big idea is this When the Spirit moves, the church must submit to what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: Even when it disrupts our categories.
SPEAKER_01: When the Spirit moves, the church must submit to what God is doing, even when it disrupts our categories.
SPEAKER_01: With that, we're gonna look at three movements within this text today.
SPEAKER_01: The three movements are this.
SPEAKER_01: First, we'll look at how God corrects his church.
SPEAKER_01: Second, we'll look at how God expands his church, and then thirdly, we'll look at how God unifies his church.
SPEAKER_01: We see this embodied in Acts 11, and it's something we're still trying to live out today.
SPEAKER_01: It's something that the bride of Christ, his church, should still live out today.
SPEAKER_01: So I'll pray and then let's dig in.
SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us here today to worship together, to praise you together, to lift your name high.
SPEAKER_01: God, I ask that you strengthen me as I preach your word, that you move me out of the way, that you let your words be made clear.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, you are welcome in this place.
SPEAKER_01: Would you prepare our hearts, prepare our minds?
SPEAKER_01: Would you let this word rest on our hearts?
SPEAKER_01: We love you, we praise you, and it's in the mighty name of Jesus I pray.
SPEAKER_01: And all God's people said, Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_01: So, point number one, God corrects his church.
SPEAKER_01: So, Acts 11, 1 through 18, it looks at how God corrects his church, and I won't read all that over you again this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but what it what it is, it's a lot of recap from what we looked at today or last week.
SPEAKER_01: So, Peter, he goes back to Jerusalem and he meets with the church in Jerusalem and he's recounting what just transpired.
SPEAKER_01: These visions from the Lord, how the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: And that's kind of where we're at in verses 1 through 18.
SPEAKER_01: So the problem being presented to Peter is that he ate with these Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3 there, it says, You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.
SPEAKER_01: So notice something important here.
SPEAKER_01: They're not upset that the Gentiles heard the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say you went to uncircumcised men and shared the gospel with him.
SPEAKER_01: No, it says you ate with them.
SPEAKER_01: They are upset that Peter crossed this boundary.
SPEAKER_01: And we talked about it last week and the week before, but in first century Judaism, table fellowship, breaking bread together, it was theological.
SPEAKER_01: To eat with someone was to recognize them as covenantally clean.
SPEAKER_01: So that the issue is not cuisine, it's not food, it's not what they were eating, but the issue is covenant identity.
SPEAKER_01: You see, in the Jewish people's heads, the Gentiles were not a part of their covenant community.
SPEAKER_01: They were not a part of their covenant family.
SPEAKER_01: But God comes in and breaks these barriers and says, no, these Gentiles are grafted into God's family.
SPEAKER_01: What we see, what this reveals, is that Christ, he did not abolish the old covenant promises.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: What he says in his gospels is that he came to fulfill them.
SPEAKER_01: The ceremonial boundary markers that once separated Israel from the nations, were shadows that were pointing to Christ and how he breaks down that dividing wall of hostility.
SPEAKER_01: And so Peter, he is called to account.
SPEAKER_01: The church is accountable.
SPEAKER_01: And this is important as we think about like structure and organization of a church.
SPEAKER_01: Even Peter, an apostle, somebody that was given a mighty tax and task and mission from God, even he must explain himself to the church.
SPEAKER_01: Even he must give an account.
SPEAKER_01: So what this is, in my opinion, is an early picture of congregational accountability.
SPEAKER_01: Authority, it exists in the church, but it is accountable to God's word and to the gathered body.
SPEAKER_01: What we see in the early church and what we try to embody and show today is that no leader stands above the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That no leader stands above accountability.
SPEAKER_01: What we see is that the unity of the church mattered then, and that the unity of the church matters today.
SPEAKER_01: So the question arises: will they fracture over their identity or will these Jewish believers and these new Gentile believers will they collectively submit to the lordship of Christ?
SPEAKER_01: So Peter, he gives a defense.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about these kind of four acts of divine initiative.
SPEAKER_01: And he recounts the events that transpired in Acts 10 in order.
SPEAKER_01: So the four divine actions, the four divine movements that he shares is the vision that he received.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, the Spirit's command to go and see Cornelius.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, he shares Cornelius' vision.
SPEAKER_01: And then fourthly, he shares the Holy Spirit's descent.
SPEAKER_01: Peter, he wasn't innovating.
SPEAKER_01: No, he was being dragged.
SPEAKER_01: He was being empowered by God's revelation.
SPEAKER_01: As one commentator puts it, it took four hammer blows of divine revelation to break Peter's prejudice.
SPEAKER_01: Hammer blow one, the vision from God.
SPEAKER_01: Hammer blow two, the spirit's command to go visit Cornelius.
SPEAKER_01: Hammer blow three, Cornelius' vision.
SPEAKER_01: And then boom, fourthly, the Spirit's descent.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a truth for us this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes God has to knock down these walls in our lives, and maybe it's our theology, maybe it's our the faith that we grew up with, whatever it may be.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's God alone that can dismantle those things.
SPEAKER_01: Peter, he says, What God has made clean, do not call common.
SPEAKER_01: We kind of belabored that point last week.
SPEAKER_01: But really, what I just want you to hear, it's not about food, it's about people.
SPEAKER_01: Then verse 15, this is really where I want us to hone in on verses 1 through 19, is there in verse 15, and then also we'll hone in on verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15, it's kind of the climactic moments after Peter recounts what had just happened.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: And that phrase, just as, it's everything here.
SPEAKER_01: It shows that Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, it's not just a Jewish possession.
SPEAKER_01: No, it was a kingdom inauguration.
SPEAKER_01: Peter, he remembers Jesus' words.
SPEAKER_01: John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: What this is, is this redemptive historical fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: This is the fulfillment of so much of what we see in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same spirit, the same gift, the same salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And then Peter asks the question that silences the room.
SPEAKER_01: Who was I that I could stand in God's way?
SPEAKER_01: Different translations say, who was I to hinder God's way?
SPEAKER_01: So that verb to hinder, to stand in the way of, is the same used when in the book of Acts talking about hindering one's baptism.
SPEAKER_01: So what we see is to resist for the church in Jerusalem, for the early church, for the Jews, to resist this Gentile inclusion, it would have been to resist God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: So how are we to apply that to our lives?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think there's some questions that we can ask ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Where are we tempted to stand in God's way?
SPEAKER_01: Where are we tempted to hinder God's movement?
SPEAKER_01: Do we assume that a certain type of person with a certain education level won't care about theology?
SPEAKER_01: Do we assume that, you know, intellectual skeptics are unreachable?
SPEAKER_01: Do we assume that certain lifestyles are beyond God's grace?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we need to ask ourselves, where do our preferences override God's purposes?
SPEAKER_01: Like, be real with yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Like, are are we are there people that we assume are unlikely candidates for God's grace?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you guys, but 11, 12 years ago, back when the Lord Jesus saved me out of a life of sin, out of a life of darkness, out of a life of addiction, I was an unlikely candidate for God's grace, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I think if we're honest with ourselves, that's all of our story.
SPEAKER_01: What we don't, we do not deserve God's grace, but He freely gives it to us as a free gift.
SPEAKER_01: We're all, if we're being real, unlikely candidates for God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: So the gospel, it doesn't expand because we approve it.
SPEAKER_01: No, it expands because Christ Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And then verse 18, I just love this.
SPEAKER_01: It's the result of Peter's explanation of his defense of what had gone down.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 18 reads, When they heard these things, they fell silent.
SPEAKER_01: And they glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also, God has granted repentance that leads to life.
SPEAKER_01: So this silence, it's not confusion.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like they're not sitting there doubting what Peter has recounted to them.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's it's just surrender.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, wow.
SPEAKER_01: God has called these Gentiles to the same faith that we have.
SPEAKER_01: God has granted repentance that leads to life even to the Gentiles, is what the text says.
SPEAKER_01: So repentance, it's not this self-generated self-improvement plan.
SPEAKER_01: It is a gift that God grants, it is a gift of his grace that he grants that awakens dead people, awakens dead hearts to life.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So repentance is granted, salvation is given, and grace falls on the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you guys know this, but the Gentile inclusion, it means we're included in God's family.
SPEAKER_01: Without Acts 10, without Acts 11, there's no church here today.
SPEAKER_01: There's no church in the Western world.
SPEAKER_01: We are Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: I think all of us are.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's some that are Jewish, but we're included because of what we're reading here.
SPEAKER_01: So the church did not engineer this.
SPEAKER_01: God did.
SPEAKER_01: Which brings us to point number two.
SPEAKER_01: God expands his church.
SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 11, verses 19 through 24, the word of God says, Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: God expands his church.
SPEAKER_01: So now, as we see this transition in Acts 11, the author Luke, he zooms out.
SPEAKER_01: You remember, I think it was Acts chapter 8, I believe, when Stephen is persecuted and killed.
SPEAKER_01: You guys remember that?
SPEAKER_01: So Stephen dies.
SPEAKER_01: What the text showed us is that the believers then scattered.
SPEAKER_01: And remember, I shared that what looked like tragedy became mission strategy.
SPEAKER_01: It was God at work.
SPEAKER_01: So here we get more language around this.
SPEAKER_01: So the the in the same way you can think about the cross, right?
SPEAKER_01: The cross of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We're about to celebrate that here in a month as we celebrate Easter, resurrection, Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Oops.
SPEAKER_01: The cross itself, it looks like defeat, right?
SPEAKER_01: But God has always advanced redemption through suffering.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thinking back to our thematic verse for Acts, Acts 1.8.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in all Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're seeing play out here.
SPEAKER_01: The believers are scattering throughout the region, throughout Antioch.
SPEAKER_01: In Antioch, it's a strategic city.
SPEAKER_01: Antioch was the third largest city in the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_01: It was cosmopolitan.
SPEAKER_01: It was pluralistic.
SPEAKER_01: It was full of pagan temples.
SPEAKER_01: Antioch was affluent.
SPEAKER_01: It was sexually permissive.
SPEAKER_01: It was religiously diverse, so like different religions, different gods.
SPEAKER_01: There was economic well-being in Antioch.
SPEAKER_01: And it's there that the gospel takes root.
SPEAKER_01: What we're seeing as we go through Acts is God expanding his kingdom, expanding his church to these strategic cities throughout the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_01: So at first, the believers they preach only to Jews.
SPEAKER_01: But then what the text says is that unnamed believers began preaching to Greeks.
SPEAKER_01: Luke doesn't tell us their names, and I just love that.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's like some of the most significant kingdom work is done by anonymous saints.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And I believe the same is true today.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you will never write a best-selling Christian book or a theology book.
SPEAKER_01: I probably won't either.
SPEAKER_01: But what I wholeheartedly believe is that quiet faithfulness, conversations, invitations, prayers, intercession, those things, not among others, those things move the kingdom forward.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 21 says, the hand of the Lord was with them.
SPEAKER_01: And that phrase it echoes Old Testament language.
SPEAKER_01: That's the powerful presence of God that's accomplishing his will.
SPEAKER_01: What we see is that a great number in Antioch, a great number, believed.
SPEAKER_01: And notice the pattern of them coming to belief.
SPEAKER_01: They preached the Lord Jesus and they turned to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Christ's Lordship is central.
SPEAKER_01: And I think, I don't remember if it was last week or the week before, but we talked about how, like, in this time, in the first century, Caesar was Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So to say that Christ is Lord was a radical statement.
SPEAKER_01: So to say Jesus is Lord, it was both worship and it was resistance.
SPEAKER_01: So what are the competing lords today in our lives?
SPEAKER_01: I think so often, like the competing lords, the little g gods, the little g gods that are on the throne of our life are stuff like autonomy.
SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, I just, it's me, myself, and I.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need anybody else.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need God, I don't need other people.
SPEAKER_01: I think another little g god, another uh competing lord is identity, you know, um, another competing lord is self-expression.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing: the expansion of the church.
SPEAKER_01: It's not sociological, it's not based on social class, it's not based on this group or that group, it's not based on whatever silo that we place ourselves in.
SPEAKER_01: The expansion of the church is Christ-centered, it's Christological.
SPEAKER_01: So Jerusalem, the church at Jerusalem, they hear about Antioch.
SPEAKER_01: Jerusalem was still kind of like the center of the early church.
SPEAKER_01: Jerusalem hears about Antioch and they send Barnabas.
SPEAKER_01: Remember Barnabas, he was the encourager, the son of encouragement.
SPEAKER_01: So why Barnabas?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he's from Cyprus, he's culturally flexible.
SPEAKER_01: He can like contextualize the gospel in these different places.
SPEAKER_01: And the text says that he's full of faith, he's full of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: When he came, when he got there to Antioch, Barnabas, when Barnabas came to Antioch, he saw the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what's crazy.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, what does what does the grace of God look like?
SPEAKER_01: Like, ask yourselves that.
SPEAKER_01: I think like you can't you cannot necessarily see the grace of God with your eyes, except for what the grace of God produces, which is transformed lives.
SPEAKER_01: Grace is invisible until it produces repentance, until it produces faith, and until it produces a transformed life.
SPEAKER_01: I think about a brother or sister in your life, think about somebody that you look up to in the faith.
SPEAKER_01: What you're seeing is the grace of God displayed in their transformed life.
SPEAKER_01: So Barnabas, he gets there, he doesn't panic, he rejoices.
SPEAKER_01: And he exhorts them, he encourages them to remain faithful with steadfast purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Literally, that's like with purpose of heart.
SPEAKER_01: So remaining steadfast, persevering in a pagan city like Antioch is necessary.
SPEAKER_01: That's something that only the Spirit of the Lord could do.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing while growth, while the expansion of God's kingdom, while the expansion of his church is ultimately God's work, our job, our call is simply to be faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Faithfulness, it positions us for usefulness.
SPEAKER_01: It's this posture of here I am, God, use me.
SPEAKER_01: Point three and our final point this morning is God unifies his church.
SPEAKER_01: God unifies his church.
SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 11, verses 25 through 30.
SPEAKER_01: The word says, So Barnabas went to Tarshus to look for Saul, and when he and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.
SPEAKER_01: For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people.
SPEAKER_01: And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: This took place in the days of Claudius.
SPEAKER_01: So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea.
SPEAKER_01: And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.
SPEAKER_01: So what we see by Barnabas' actions is that this work, the work that God is doing in Antioch, it's too big for anyone, one man to lead.
SPEAKER_01: So Barnabas, he goes to Tarshish, he's like, hey Saul, come on, you gotta come help me in Antioch.
SPEAKER_01: And what that shows us is that ministry is collaborative.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about one person on a platform, a pedestal.
SPEAKER_01: It's the body of Christ that will build his church and expand his church.
SPEAKER_01: The spirit, the Holy Spirit forms teams.
SPEAKER_01: In this church planting journey of ours, there's nothing that excites me more than when people like catch it and they're like, hey, how can I serve?
SPEAKER_01: How can I help?
SPEAKER_01: You know, whether that's whatever, whether that's on the worship team, whether that's in the sound booth, whether that's mowing the lawn in the spring, whether that's cleaning the church, whatever it may be.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like whether it's working on the clothing closet, whether, whatever it is, it's like that jacks me up when people are like, hey, the Holy Spirit has worked on me, and I want to play a part in how God is building his church.
SPEAKER_01: So for a year, Barnabas and Saul they teach, they share God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And here we read that the disciples were first called Christians.
SPEAKER_01: So this suffix, Ian, I-in, it was often used for political allegiance, like Herodian, Christian, what it meant and means is belonging to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: In the context of this chapter, this was likely a term of mockery.
SPEAKER_01: The Roman people were saying, like, hey, you're little Christs.
SPEAKER_01: So this is like political language with some Roman flavor on it.
SPEAKER_01: But it's significant, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because what it's saying is that their primary identity is no longer ethnic.
SPEAKER_01: Now it is Christ-centered.
SPEAKER_01: You know, are you this or that?
SPEAKER_01: Are you like um I'm an Oklahoman?
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm you know, I grew up in Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: My identity is Christ-centered, it's not location-centered, it's not like, hey, um, what I do for work.
SPEAKER_01: It's no, like, hey, I'm a Jesus dude.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: No longer Jew and Gentile.
SPEAKER_01: Christian.
SPEAKER_01: So this is profound.
SPEAKER_01: The church is a new humanity.
SPEAKER_01: So this is like an Ephesians 2 reality that we're seeing.
SPEAKER_01: Then we see this prediction of this famine and the generosity that follows.
SPEAKER_01: You have prophets that arrive from Jerusalem, and Agabus, he predicts famine.
SPEAKER_01: And historically, that's like historically accurate, there were famines that took place under Claudius.
SPEAKER_01: So the question that arises is the church in Antioch is being birthed, is how do they respond?
SPEAKER_01: How do the Christians, the early Christians, the first people to be called Christians, how do they respond?
SPEAKER_01: Well, what the text says is that they send relief.
SPEAKER_01: They send relief.
SPEAKER_01: To whom?
SPEAKER_01: To Judea.
SPEAKER_01: So do you see this like divine reversal that's taking place here?
SPEAKER_01: The Gentile, Acts 10, the Gentile believers are now included in God's family.
SPEAKER_01: And now, Acts 11, the Gentile believers are sending money to the Jewish believers.
SPEAKER_01: Those who they were once outcasted from, they were not allowed to fellowship with, they're now serving, they're now sending relief to.
SPEAKER_01: This is reconciliation embodied.
SPEAKER_01: This is reconciliation lived out.
SPEAKER_01: And they give according to their ability, is what the text says.
SPEAKER_01: It's not coercion, it's not like, hey, the the church in Judea, they don't have their hands out like asking and begging for money.
SPEAKER_01: It's not compulsion.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's just spirit-filled, spirit-produced generosity.
SPEAKER_01: And the same spirit who broke these ethnic barriers now breaks this economic self-protection.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what's what's cool.
SPEAKER_01: This is kind of a little aside, a little rabbit trail, if you will.
SPEAKER_01: Looking at the clock.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna tell the story.
SPEAKER_01: So this it talks about like send relief, right?
SPEAKER_01: They respond by sending relief.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's a compassion uh ministry on so we're part of the sin network, church planting network, and then their their compassion ministry, their disaster relief ministry is called Send Relief.
SPEAKER_01: And it's based on this scripture right here.
SPEAKER_01: So, some of you know this, some of you don't, but behind the scenes, I filled out an application last December for us to be considered a sin relief affiliate ministry center.
SPEAKER_01: Basically saying, like, hey, we believe in the compassion ministry work that your church is doing, and we believe in where God is leading the compassion ministry of your church.
SPEAKER_01: And so, literally, Friday, two days ago, I got word that we were accepted and we're the first sin relief affiliate ministry center in Kansas City.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, amen.
SPEAKER_01: So, shoutouts, Crystal, shoutouts Danielle, Cassie, everybody that's helped with the clothing closet, everybody who's done any sort of compassion ministry, like that's because of you.
SPEAKER_01: And I just think it's really rad how like the week that we're in this text is when we find out.
SPEAKER_01: Like, God's kind of cool like that, isn't he?
SPEAKER_01: Um anywho, we should land the plane.
SPEAKER_01: So, what we're seeing here is unity.
SPEAKER_01: We're seeing unity of the church, Jewish and Gentile, believers alike.
SPEAKER_01: And that's how unity's proven.
SPEAKER_01: Unity is not proven by appearances, by like, hey, some good social media pictures.
SPEAKER_01: Unity is not proven by that.
SPEAKER_01: Unity is proven by sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: Like thinking about unity.
SPEAKER_01: I think of my brother Dolly when his car broke down a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: And Bo, you guys know Bo, he's working out on the road right now.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but he dropped everything to go help Dolly work on his vehicle to change the ignition plugs and spark plugs, middle of a workday.
SPEAKER_01: That's sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: That's unity, right?
SPEAKER_01: Unity is marked by sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's so pertinent to us in our current day and age, in our current cultural moment.
SPEAKER_01: And in like if we're being real, the the consumer church culture that so often we can live in.
SPEAKER_01: For I think oftentimes unity is often measured by like preferential alignment.
SPEAKER_01: But in the New Testament, unity is measured by sacrificial love.
SPEAKER_01: The Antioch Church, the church at Antioch, they they did not ask, what do we get out of this?
SPEAKER_01: No, they asked, How can we serve our brothers and sisters?
SPEAKER_01: How can we send relief?
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Lana.
SPEAKER_01: It's easy to say that we are one in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But it's harder to open up our schedules, it's harder to open up our giftings, it's harder to open up our wallets, our time, talents, and treasures.
SPEAKER_01: But the Antioch Church, they see themselves as being a part of one body, a part of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Reconciliation, it's visible.
SPEAKER_01: Unity, it is visible.
unknown: Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And what you see is Christ at the center of it.
SPEAKER_01: So as we close, Ash and you can come up.
SPEAKER_01: Ultimately, what Acts 11 shows us, what the early church shows us, what the church of Antioch shows us is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We see that Jesus is Lord of all.
SPEAKER_01: We see that Jesus baptizes with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We see that He forms one people.
SPEAKER_01: We see that He fulfills the Abrahamic promise.
SPEAKER_01: We see that He builds His church.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't Peter's church.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't Barnabas' church, this isn't Jerusalem's church, this isn't Antioch's church, it is Christ's church.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't Keith's church, this isn't Zach's church, this isn't the way church, this is Christ's church.
SPEAKER_01: And how does he build it?
SPEAKER_01: He builds it by his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Ultimately, big picture.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't hear anything else, hear this.
SPEAKER_01: Acts 11 is about the exalted Christ extending his reign through his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So Acts 11, it teaches us that when God moves, he corrects our assumptions, he expands our vision, he deepens our unity.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel, it breaks barriers because the cross broke the greatest barrier.
SPEAKER_01: Like I feel like we really hammered that home last week.
SPEAKER_01: But the cross broke the greatest barrier.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus broke the greatest barrier, the barrier between us and God because of sin.
unknown: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: And at the cross, at the foot of the cross, it's an even playing field, it's a level playing field, Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female.
SPEAKER_01: All are justified, all are made right in the same way.
SPEAKER_01: By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
SPEAKER_01: So, church, our calling is to live by the Spirit and follow the way of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So that means we submit when Scripture confronts us.
SPEAKER_01: That means that we celebrate when grace surprises us.
SPEAKER_01: I think like a good example of that is when we do baptisms, like we celebrate because grace has surprised us.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe surprised our own selves, surprised your brothers and sisters, surprised your family.
SPEAKER_01: Grace surprises us.
unknown: Yes, it does.
SPEAKER_01: We collaborate in mission.
SPEAKER_01: We give sacrificially of our time, talents, and treasures, and we embrace the global, multi-ethnic nature of Christ's body.
SPEAKER_01: So let us never stand in God's way.
SPEAKER_01: Let us glorify Him when repentance leads to life.
SPEAKER_01: And let us be a church where the Spirit builds something that only Christ could imagine.
SPEAKER_01: Like we're not trying to build a church that only our team can imagine.
SPEAKER_01: No, let's let's let's join God in building a church that only Christ could imagine.
unknown: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're, lastly, if you're here today and you feel outside, outside the church, outside the covenant, outside of the hope that is offered for you, this chapter is for you.
SPEAKER_01: The same spirits who fell on Cornelius, the same spirit who met Saul on the road to Damascus, the same spirit who met me 11 years ago still grants repentance today and life to all who believe.
SPEAKER_01: So if that's you, our team, myself, we'd be happy to pray with you.
SPEAKER_01: Just come grab us.
SPEAKER_01: But I'll close in prayer, and the National closes in song.
SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, thank you for being here among us today.
SPEAKER_01: God, I pray that your word would rest on our hearts, that your word would transform our minds, that your word would renew us, Lord, that we would see you as being the center of all things, that you would build this church.
SPEAKER_01: Not according to our imagination, but according to Christ's imagination.
SPEAKER_01: God, for all for any who do not yet know you, would you encounter them during this worship time?
SPEAKER_01: Would you tug on their heartstrings and lead them into saving faith, Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, we love you, we praise you.
SPEAKER_01: In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray.
SPEAKER_01: And everybody said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
SPEAKER_00: Join us Sundays at 10 30 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: in the Rosedale neighborhood of Kansas City.
SPEAKER_00: Or find us anytime at the wakeac.church.