The Church in Antioch (Acts 11:19-30)

Welcome & Announcements

Josh Dickson will be teaching Bible Study & Prayer on March 8th, 2023.

Pastor Daniel and Natalie will be out of town March 8-11. In case of emergency, please contact a deacon.

Pastor Jordan Alturas of The Fellowship Church (State College, PA) will be preaching March 12th, 2023, during the Sunday AM Service.

On March 31 at 7pm, we’ll be showing The Most Reluctant Convert. Admittance is free and we’ll provide snacks and drinks.

Quarterly Business Meeting, April 2 after Sunday AM Worship.

Giving Reminder

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Ps 72:1-7)

Our Call to Worship this morning is Psalm 72, which is a psalm of David in which he asks God to give the king justice, strength, authority, long life, and prosperity in the kingdom. Because of it’s length, we’ll be working through it over the next few weeks. Please stand and read responsively with me Psalm 72:1-7—I’ll read the odd-numbered verses, please join me with the even-numbered verses:

Psalm 72:1–7 ESV

1 Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son! 2 May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice! 3 Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness! 4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor! 5 May they fear you while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations! 6 May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth! 7 In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more!

Congregational Singing

Across the Lands (198)

Come Christians Join to Sing (125)

When Trials Come (79)

Scripture Reading (Gen 20)

Genesis 20 ESV

1 From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.” 8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. 9 Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” 10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” 11 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ 12 Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. 13 And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ” 14 Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him. 15 And Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.” 16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.” 17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. 18 For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

Preaching of God’s Word (Acts 11:19-30)

If you have your Bible with you, please turn it to Acts 11:19-30.

As you turn there, let me just remind you of what’s going on in this text. Over the past few weeks, we worked through a section of Acts that speaks of a great vision given by God to Peter. It was a very unusual vision in which he saw some very unusual things in that dream that ultimately carried the meaning that there is now no longer a difference between Jewish and Gentile people. Last week, Josh showed us just how great of a thing this truly is as he explained to us the significance that there is now that there is no longer a difference between the two people groups.

Josh did a great job reminding us of the need to proclaim the Gospel to all people, realizing that not everyone will believe but we still have a responsibility or a duty to proclaim the truth to everyone even if they’re different than us.

This week, we’re almost given an example of what this is like as we see a new local church established in a new city that wins the blessing of the church in Jerusalem and even works with the church in Jerusalem in unity to make a difference amongst the people. Or in other words, we’re seeing how the Gospel supersedes any one location, any one people group, regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, or any other socio-economic difference—because God isn’t concerned with socio-economic differences, the Gospel isn’t concerned with socio-economic differences, and neither should the church.

Prayer for Illumination

Establishment of the Church in Antioch (19-21)

Acts 11:19–21 ESV

19 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. 20 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. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

Growth Despite Persecution (19-21)

Our text starts by reminding us of great persecution that the early church suffered through and in this case, Luke, the author, mentions that this persecution that occurred during the time of Stephen’s martyrdom caused the Christians to be scattered.

Truthfully, this makes a lot of sense—if you are a Christian and you notice that your local community is starting to murder other Christians, most people (unless they sense God calling them to remain in that area), will flee to safer communities, places, and countries.

In the case of the early church in the first century, they traveled “as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch,” which might not mean so much to you unless you were to look at a map of the first century.

And if you were to look at a map, you’d notice that Phoenicia is a region north of Jerusalem, Cyprus is about 250 miles from Jerusalem, and Antioch, which was located in modern-day Turkey is almost 500 miles from Jerusalem.

The believers are scattered and they’re running as far as they possibly can—to give you an idea of what this would be like—New York City is about 250 miles from here and Charlotte, NC is about 500 miles from here.

And these people are walking to place to place, on the run from those who sought to harm them for their faith.

But, here’s the amazing part of all this—as they’re running, they’re still proclaiming the Gospel.

Despite knowing that they’re being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ, they still choose to proclaim the Gospel as they run for their lives.

This really ought to be convicting for us because most believers in the US don’t even bother to proclaim the Gospel when they aren’t running for their lives because of their faith.

Now, note, that for most of these people as they’re running, they are being careful with whom they’re proclaiming the Gospel to.

For the most part, they’re only talking to Jewish people—and there really could be two reasons for this:

(1) they could just be revealing their fear. They could be afraid that those outside of their ethnicity would turn them in.

(2) or, they could be revealing to us that they don’t know that the Holy Spirit has already indwelled Gentiles, that Gentiles are also repenting of their sins and coming to believe in Jesus Christ.

Personally, I think it’s more likely to be the second issue rather than the first because their fear isn’t due to anything done to those outside of Judaism but rather those within Judaism—their persecution is coming from the High Priests not the government.

And since they’re on the run, what’s the likelihood that they’ve actually heard that the Gentiles have started repenting, believing, and being indwelled by the Holy Spirit?

But, some of them, “men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus.”

Or in other words, some of them who were Jewish but not necessarily from Jerusalem, were preaching Jesus to not just Jewish people.

The word hellenist refers, in this context, to Greek people who weren’t Jewish—these people, while on the run, were making disciples of every nation.

And God blessed their efforts—we see in in v. 21, “And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.”

A moment in early church history that could be looked at in a negative light—that they’re being persecuted so heavily that they’re running for their lives and yet, it is in the midst of this moment that “a great number” believed and turned to the Lord.

I think in our modern world, we tend to think that God needs us and God needs the United States and God needs us to have religious freedom otherwise the Gospel will be extinguished and the truth will be hidden.

But the reality is, that even in the midst of great persecution where believers are literally running for their lives, God can and still does call people to know Him and believe in Him and follow Him.

The reality is that God doesn’t need us nor does He need the United States or religious freedom for His Gospel to go out and have a profound effect and influence on the people.

God doesn’t need us, He chooses to work in and through us. God doesn’t need political religious freedom or the United States to bring people to Him.

Can He use political religious freedom or the United States? Sure, but to assume that God needs these things to be effective reveals that you don’t actually believe God is as powerful or sovereign or providential as He is.

In Augustine’s City of God, he critiques his culture primarily in its bipartisan political argumentation—the people were essentially shouting at each other from opposites sides and in his critique of the culture, he reminds the Christians that ultimately whether Rome stood or collapsed, it really didn’t matter because ultimately, they aren’t citizens of Rome, they’re citizens of God’s city or kingdom.

Thus, the goal as Christians isn’t to necessarily save our country but rather to live in the kingdom that we’ve been called to, which means that even when there’s great persecution in this world, God can and still does call people to know Him and believe in Him and follow Him.

Of course, when something amazing like this happens—where there is an establishment of a local church as far away as Antioch and there’s a great movement of God despite persecution, the news of it spreads. And in this case, the church in Jerusalem heard of the amazing work of God in Antioch so they sent Barnabas to investigate—let’s look at vv. 22-30.

The Universal Church Serving Together (22-30)

Acts 11:22–30 ESV

22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 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, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 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. 27 Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 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). 29 So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. 30 And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

Our text continues by showing us what is really the Support of the Universal Church (22-26) for what’s happening in Antioch.

Barnabas is sent to Antioch—and remember, this is about a 500 mile journey by foot. It is no easy feat and yet, he goes willingly because of this news that they had heard from Antioch.

And what Barnabas finds in Antioch is pleasing to him, v. 23 says that “when he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad.”

Or in other words, what he saw happening in the lives of the people, he recognized to be the working of God, which caused him to be glad.

The word that we translate as glad could also be translated as rejoice, as in, “When he came and saw the grace of God, he [rejoiced].” He praised God and he gave thanks.

Now, you might hear that Barnabas responded in this way but you might question in your mind why this is such a profound statement—that Barnabas came and rejoiced with them but consider how we typically respond when we see something that people claim to be a movement of God.

Most of us are very skeptical when people claim that there’s a movement of God—and we’re right to be, after all, Jesus Himself tells us to be discerning when someone claims that something is from God.

And Paul tells us that “even if we [meaning the apostles] or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one [originally] preached . . . let him be accursed.” Or in other words,

We ought to be careful when something like this occurs but what we see in Barnabas’ reaction is that when it proves to be legitimate, we ought to rejoice.

A good example of this is what recently happened at Asbury University—I was asked by many people what I thought of the supposed revival at Asbury and my response was the same; I am optimistically skeptical.

What I mean by that is simple, you cannot make a split judgment about something like that from a distance because you don’t know what’s going on when the cameras are off and the news stops reporting about it.

Rather, you need to wait to see what the fruits of the revival are—it could be that Asbury was nothing more than emotionalism and manipulation that caused what seems to be renewed hearts and a desire for God; or it could be that the people at Asbury actually have renewed hearts and a desire for God.

Only time will tell.

So Barnabas sees that what is occuring in Antioch is truly of God and he gives an encouragement to the people, “he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose.”

Or in other words, Barnabas exhorts them to be firm in their faith and to walk with the mission in mind.

Why exactly does Barnabas do this? We see Luke’s reasoning for it in v. 24, “For [Barnabas] was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.”

Barnabas was someone who was good in a moral sense, he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he had faith. So, of course, when he sees something like what had happened in Antioch and he realizes that what had happened is truly of God, he celebrates it.

Before going and helping the people of Antioch in a different way. In vv. 25-26, we see Barnabas go to find Saul so that they could teach the people in Antioch over the next year.

Just consider how much Barnabas and Saul sacrificed for the people of Antioch—Barnabas not only walked a few hundred miles to get from Jerusalem to Antioch, he walked about another 80-90 miles to then get to Tarsus to pick up Saul.

Both Barnabas and Saul then take the next year of their life to teach these people and to train them and to get them to the point where they were disciple-making-disciples.

And they did it for no thanks or applause or hoopla, they did it because they were good people morally, filled with the Holy Spirit, and full of faith—they realized that helping these people was of greater value than their own comfort, wellbeing, or desire.

The text then ends with a final four verses that speak of a coming famine, which was to soon take place. And what we really learn from these last verses is that the Universal Church when united on truth, support one another (27-30)

This famine is going to be absolutely devastating.

It’s going to be a global famine and it’s going to occur soon.

So, the disciples determined, “every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea.”

Or in other words, they make the decision as a local church to go and help the local churches in Judea by providing for their physical needs during this time of great famine.

Now, I will say, some people misuse passages of Scripture like this and they make the claim that this is proof that the local church needs to focus their intent on social justice or on mercy ministries but to say something like this based on these few verses (and really based on every verse that speaks about social justice and mercy ministries) neglects the fact that the church isn’t supposed to be more dedicated to these issues than they are to the truth, to proclaiming the Gospel, and to making disciples.

And it neglects the fact that that isn’t what these verses actually say or teach—rather, all these verses teach us is this, when the local churches are united on truth, they support each other.

Or in other words, this isn’t making the argument that churches are to focus only on mercy ministries or social justice—this also isn’t teaching that local churches are to be united regardless of truth.

You’ve heard me say it numerous times that unity for unity’s sake is unbiblical.

What we see in Acts 11, however, is that when it’s proven that there is a movement of God occurring and when the truth is being taught and proclaimed then and only then is unity to be expected.

And then and only then should local churches who are united on truth support each other.

An example of this is our church choosing to affiliate with the Southern Baptist Convention through the Baptist Resource Network of Pennsylvania.

Our primary reasons for joining included the simple fact that theologically and doctrinally, we’re aligned—we preach the Gospel, they preach the Gospel; we teach the truth, they teach the truth.

The moment that they stop preaching the Gospel and teaching the truth, we will leave their organization and the moment that we stop preaching the Gospel and teaching the truth, they’re supposed to remove us from the organization.

Unity for sake of unity is completely and utterly unbiblical; but when the doctrine and theology is correct, unity is to be expected.

And it is when that unity amongst likeminded believers is found that we ought to support one another, help each other, and work together.

Just like the believers in Acts 11 sought to help one another through the famine.

Now, there’s one other minor point that I want to make concerning v. 26, “And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.” I have heard many pastors and Christians make a big deal about this one phrase.

They argue that these disciples were living such a counter-cultural life that people couldn’t help but to notice so they started calling them Christ-followers. And the people who make this argument make it with the point that if you live your Christian life properly, people will notice, just like this, and they’ll respect you and honor you for your faith.

That’s not actually what’s happening here—yes, the disciples were living a very counter-cultural life and people definitely noticed them but the term Christian wasn’t a positive term, it was very much a negative term.

And it reflects the persecution that they were experiencing. To be called a Christian or a Christ follower was meant to be derogatory.

And the reasoning is simple—they were essentially saying, “look how stupid you are that you’d be willing to follow a criminal that was crucified and is now dead.”

It wasn’t a positive statement, it was negative statement.

And yet, the people weren’t bothered by it, they kept preaching the Gospel, teaching the truth, and serving one another.

Now, in the last few minutes, I want to give some application and the application is actually rather simple and I’m sur you probably picked up on it already. Nevertheless, let me tell you what they are plainly before giving some more details: (1) Don’t be wary of persecution and (2) When we find other local churches to be legitimate, celebrate and support it.

Application

Don’t be wary of persecution (19-26)

Again, we tend to see what we consider persecution and think that it’s such a terrible, terrible thing but the reality is, all that persecution does is that it removes nominal Christians—those who are Christians in name only and it strengthens actual Christians.

As we see the shift in American culture between being very accepting of Christianity to being anti-Christian, we can assume all is lost and that the world is absolutely against us—we could become nihilistic in our thinking and lose hope but the reality is that Jesus doesn’t depend on the United States and God doesn’t need for us to have religious freedom for Him to call people to Himself, for Him to grow His church, or for his church to proclaim the Gospel.

In fact, what history has taught us is that when there is no religious freedom, when there is persecution, when people try to hurt the church—that is when the church grows.

Jesus doesn’t need the United States, America, or even us—we need Him.

This means that as nominal Christianity disappears, what remains is pure Christianity and as cultural Christianity dissipates, what we’ll see is a return to biblical Christianity.

So, as we see this shift in culture and society—don’t think “woe is me, all is lost, Jesus doesn’t know what He’s doing.” Rather, realize that God is still sovereign and in His providence He is still growing His church and Jesus still reigns.

Or put differently, stop having hope in the government, in politics, in religious freedom, or in our culture and society—have hope in Jesus and Jesus alone.

Don’t be wary of persecution—God doesn’t rely on religious freedom for His Gospel to Spread.

When we find other local churches to be legitimate, we should celebrate and support it (22-30)

It can be rather easy to develop an “us and no more” mentality, which put differently, is just this idea that we’re the true Christians, no one else really is.

You might hear that and think, “that’s such an absurd thing to think,” but then consider how you view other churches, other denominations, and other people—when someone says that they go to another healthy church or is part of a good denomination do you celebrate that or do you just think they should come to our church instead?

Note, that I mention another healthy church or good denomination—for instance, I don’t really have a problem when people tell me they go somewhere like First Baptist of Philipsburg, Zion Baptist, Movalley Community Church, New Beginnings, or Halfmoon Christian Fellowship, (which by the way, isn’t a full list of good local churches, just a handful of them). Nor do I have a problem when someone tells me that their church is part of the SBC, PCA, Evangelical Free, or Converge (again, not a full list of good denominations).

In fact, we ought to celebrate when people are connected with healthy churches and healthy churches are connected with other healthy churches—and we ought to support other healthy and like-minded churches as much as we possibly can.

But realize, not every group that claims to be a church and not every denomination that claims to be good is actually so. So, while I’ll celebrate and support other healthy like-minded churches and the people who find them and are a part of those churches.

I grieve when people tell me that they’re part of a church that is known to be unhealthy or denominations that are known to question the truthfulness of Scripture, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, the literal resurrection, the physical return of Jesus, a literal heaven and hell. Or when people tell me that their local church is more concerned with cultural Christianity than real Christianity.

And I can give examples of that—like cultural fundamentalist churches that are more concerned about what you wear and what translation of the Bible you use than they are with whether you actually believe; or PC(USA) or ELCA or now the UMC that have drifted so far from believing in the inerrant Word of God that they know longer resemble the people who started the denominations let alone the Bible they claim to follow.

The truth is, that there are good and healthy churches and denominations and there are terrible unhealthy churches and denominations.

And we need to be discerning to see which churches and denominations are healthy and good and those that are unhealthy and aren’t preaching and teaching the truth.

When we do find local churches and denominations that are healthy and good and that are preaching the Gospel and teaching the truth, we ought to celebrate it.

And we need to support it in prayer, and in volunteer manpower, and maybe financially if we can.

We should celebrate and support any other local church that are legitimately preaching the Gospel and teaching the truth—and the only way we can do that is by knowing the Gospel, the truth; and by rejecting churches and denominations that are teaching falsehoods as well as those who claim to be pastors that are teaching false things.

What we learn from Acts 11:19-30 is that God can move and He can call His people and He can build His church even in the midst of great persecution. So, (1) don’t be wary of persecution, trust God and (2) when you realize that God has been working within a local church (even in the midst of persecution), then celebrate it and support it.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

When Trials Come (79)