Acts 11:19-30, "Growing Partners"

Who are your partners in your life and work? Where would you be without people who have been strong when you were weak, or encouraging when you were lonely, or had something to give when you didn’t have enough? The church is the community on mission with Jesus. Jesus has called each of us to partner with Him on His mission to establish the kingdom of God by proclaiming and demonstrating the gospel in the places we are incarnating His presence. Every follower of Jesus has been called as a missionary to our place and time. And none of us goes alone.

Our passage today shows us three partnerships all of us need to fulfill our ministry of the gospel. As we look at these, consider, do I have partnerships like these in my life? Whether you are a follower of Jesus yet or not, we all start with this first one.

The Powerless Partner with Jesus

Gospel spreads to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch...

Founded by Seleucid General Nikator (“Victorious”) as the capital of the Seleucid Empire, there was a heavy Greek influence. It was the third largest city in the Roman Empire, at this time probably 300-400,000 people. It was an international city, and many wise, powerful, important people lived there.

Luke brings us to Antioch, the city of the victorious Greek and Roman kings and generals, through the narrative of persecution. The Christians who spread the gospel in this city were those who had been scattered after the stoning of Stephen.

These Christians were anything but victorious. They weren’t the apostles or the deacons. These weren’t learned elders or dynamic preachers. These were refugees, beaten and tired, with next to nothing, settling as most refugees do, in a big city where they might find work and housing. They did not come to Antioch in wisdom or strength or nobility. But in a city that prided themselves on the kings that had entered their gates, these tired Christians were missionaries proclaiming a crucified and risen king, the Lord Jesus.

You can picture the joy on their faces as they shared the good news that the Messiah had come and was risen from the dead and establishing the kingdom of God among them. This kingdom, and the new life they were experiencing in Jesus, could not be taken away by persecution or affliction. The gospel spreads through Christians who have had everything taken away from them and still proclaim their hope in Jesus.

This is important for us to understand during times like this. We Christians use all the resources and liberties God has granted us to preach the gospel, advocate for justice, righteousness, truth, and life. But our effectiveness does not come from our wisdom or power or influence. We can be just as effective for the sake of the kingdom of God and the gospel of Jesus, or even more so, when we have our rights taken away, but we maintain our faith, joy, and hope in Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:26–31 (ESV)

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

The gospel spread so powerfully through these refugees in Antioch because as Luke says,

Acts 11:21 (ESV)

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

They were partnered with Jesus. And news reached the church in Jerusalem. And this leads to our next partnership.

The Gifted Partner with the Encourager

The church in Jerusalem was encouraged to hear of the numbers of people turning to the Lord Jesus in Antioch, and they want to encourage that church, so they send Barnabas, whose name means “son of encouragement”. Luke tells us he is “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith (Acts 11:24).” When Barnabas arrives and sees the grace of God at work, he gets right to work.

Acts 11:23 (ESV)

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,

A good leader knows what his people need. And a humble leader will never give them more than they need. And a Christian leader will always lead them to Jesus. He doesn’t need attention or credit. Barnabas sees they do not need him. The Lord Jesus is already working among them. He just encourages them to keep building that relationship. Their purpose is to learn to trust Jesus.

The result of his encouragement and exhortations to trust Jesus is that “many more people were added to the Lord.” The work continues to grow. So Barnabas sees a perfect opportunity to encourage someone else. He travels to Tarsus to invite Saul to come down off the shelf we left him on a couple of weeks ago and join him in this growing church in Antioch.

We left Saul a couple of weeks ago as a refugee returning to his hometown because his efforts to obey Jesus by preaching the gospel had only resulted in everyone wanting to kill him. Now, eight years later, Barnabas sees an opening. Saul is gifted by God, he has been called by Jesus to preach the gospel to the nations, and now there is an opportunity to be part of a growing work in a city far enough away from Damascus and Jerusalem that he wont be interrupted.

Barnabas’ humility teaches us a lesson. He was specially chosen by the apostles to encourage this gospel ministry in this important city. But the church is a community on mission, not just one person. So Barnabas leaves the work to personally invite a leader more gifted than himself to be his partner. Imagine how encouraging this would have been to Saul.

The church has benefitted more from the ministry of Saul of Tarsus, later called Paul, than maybe anyone other than Jesus Himself. But where would Saul be without Barnabas? God could have worked any way he wanted to bring Saul back into apostolic ministry. But he uses Barnabas. Maybe just to encourage you and me. We can’t all be a once-in-a-generation gifted leader. But we can all look for someone to encourage.

Most of us have never heard of Ed Kimball. He was a Sunday School teacher in the 1850’s. Not especially important. But one of the students he led to Christ was Dwight L. Moody. Maybe some of you have heard of him. He became an evangelistic preacher. He influenced Frederick B. Meyer, who was pastor of a small church. F. B. Meyer led a man named J. Wilbur Chapman to faith in Christ. Chapman invited a former baseball player, Billy Sunday, to do evangelistic work with him. Billy Sunday held a revival in Charlotte, N.C, which influenced a group of men there to invite Mordecai Ham to town to preach. It was during Ham’s revival that a 16 year old surrendered his life to Christ. That teenager was Billy Graham. And you’ve probably heard of him. Jesus worked powerfully through Billy Graham to preach the gospel to kings and presidents, as well as my aunt and some friends of mine, and in some way his ministry has impacted all of us here.

We won’t all be Billy Graham. But Jesus doesn’t need us to. We can all encourage someone who might not be involved in ministry right now and invite them to partner with us in whatever ministry God has given us. And maybe one of those people will become that once-in-a-generation gifted leader.

The third partnership flows out of the ministry of Barnabas and Saul. We are told that in Antioch, the disciples become identified for the first time as Christians, “little Christs”. This may have been meant as a slight against them by the Greeks of Antioch. But it becomes the identity that links them with disciples of Jesus everywhere. And this partnership is one of the great strengths of the church to this day.

The Prosperous Partner with the Afflicted

The final verses of our passage tell us about a famine that comes to the Roman Empire during the time of Emperor Claudius. History records several famines during his reign, mostly due to crop failures. But God is faithful to His people. Because the church is linked not through geographic, cultural, or political identities, our partnership spans all these boundaries with Christians wherever they may be found.

In this case, the church in the prosperous city of Antioch becomes a support to the church in Judea, where Jerusalem is. Rome had intentionally kept the center of Jewish culture poor and under-resourced. Caesarea and Antioch were the important Roman cities. But God is bigger and wiser and more powerful than the Roman Empire. And He sent disciples of Jesus to plant the gospel in Caesarea and Antioch at just the right time among Greeks and Romans, so that when the church in Judea suffered, the Christians in those cities could partner with them and support them.

When one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers. This is true of the body of Christ. When the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan and Christians fled into the mountains to escape the Taliban, Christians in Iran and the West sent resources to them. When Christians were being targeted by ISIS for conversion or death, Voice of the Martyrs, an international Christian organization, raised awareness by selling t-shirts and sent resources to support these persecuted Christians. Karen and I recently met the wife of one of our Free Church pastors in Vermont, who smuggled Bibles to encourage Christians and spread the gospel in Eastern Europe during the Soviet Union. And as you keep going back through history, this is what we have done.

Where do you get your strength and encouragement and support? God does not need you to be wise or powerful or wealthy to use you in His kingdom. He has everything you need for life and godliness and He provides it all to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Sometimes it looks like practical help from Christians who have the resources you need when you’re short. Sometimes it looks like a friend who sees something in you that they want to encourage.

But no matter what other form it takes, it is Jesus Christ at work in us and among us to do the things we cannot do on our own. That goes for us individually and for us as a community on mission with Jesus. He doesn’t call the wise or powerful or well-resourced. He calls the foolish and the weak and the nothings and provides the wisdom, power, and resources we need to accomplish the mission.

The gospel is this: that while we were foolish and weak and helpless, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, enemies of God, Christ died for us. And He has risen from the dead to demonstrate that our life is in Him. Our hope is in Him. Our strength comes from Him.

Communion

Questions for Discussion

1. Who are some people that encourage you? How is your life different because of the partners God has given you?

2. What do we learn about God from this passage? How do we see His wisdom and power working in Antioch?

3. Where is the hand of the Lord with us right now?

4. What do we learn about ourselves from this passage?

5. What are ways the church of today was formed because of the work Barnabas and Saul did in Antioch in AD 40’s?

6. Who is someone that has encouraged you by inviting you to do ministry with them? Who is someone for whom you could do the same?

7. What are the global partnerships we have that are most meaningful to you? How can we strengthen those as a church?

8. How will you respond to this passage this week?

9. Who is someone you can share this passage with this week?