A Movement For Misfits

Continuing series: A People for the World

The Book of Acts offers the Church a blueprint for living with purpose and clarity in a complex and often hostile world.

As we study this book, we aim to rediscover our purpose as God’s people and learn how to “show up” in the world—serving as Spirit-empowered witnesses, agents of reconciliation, and ambassadors of the kingdom of God.

Today we are looking at a real pivot point in the development of the church

Acts 11:19–26 ESV

Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and 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.

Sermon: A Movement for Misfits

PRAYER

Speak To The Despised

Cultural, not a racial conflict

Hellenization was the spread of Greek language, philosophy, and customs across the ancient world.

Many Jews saw Greek influence as a threat to their faith because it emphasized:

Polytheism (worshiping many gods)

Philosophical rationalism (doubting supernatural revelation)

Materialism and worldly pleasures (luxury, sports, entertainment)

The Maccabean Revolt (167-160 BC) had been a fight against forced Hellenization, so many Jews still had generational trauma from attempts to erase their culture.

Who are the people who we have determined are not a good cultural fit for the kingdom?

The drug dealer and the drug addict

The sex worker

The Trump voter

Send Out The Rejects

Barnabas was a native of Cyprus (Acts 4:36)

Perhaps that's why his name was not put forward to replace Judas.

This connection to Hellenist culture was a bit of a stain on his reputation, a limitation in Jerusalem.

But, Barnabas was the perfect person to send to Antioch.

Peter had a revelation, but Barnabas has a relationship.

Peter was learning to accept the gentiles, but Barnabas loved them because he came from them.

This is why it was men of Cyprus and Cyrene who preached to the gentiles

Cyprus was a large island in the eastern Mediterranean.

Cyrene was a major city in North Africa (modern Libya).

Many Cyrenians were dark-skinned North Africans.

Many times, the things in our backgrounds and personalities that seem like limitations to service in the “church” are the very things that God will use to expand the Kingdom.

Very direct person…doesn’t speak “church” all that well.

Too loud for church

Too quiet for church

Don’t wear church clothes

Too much into movies or sports or makeup or video games

Maybe you’re not cut out to be a Sunday school teacher, but perhaps you are the one God wants to use as a MOVEMENT MAKER.

Look For The Forgotten

Paul’s ministry had flamed out in Jerusalem

He had been radically saved

But, his preaching had been ineffective

He faced lots of opposition and saw little fruit.

The disciples at Jerusalem had sent Paul away by night for this safety and their own.

The conversation about Paul was, “He seemed to have great promise. Too bad things didn't work out”.

But, Barnabas remembered Paul and went to find him.

I began praying last year before the relaunch, and I continue to pray today for a Barnabus spirit to come over this congregation.

I am convinced that there are some people who have come through this congregation and it didn’t seem to work out, but in this next season, their gifts and callings will come on line here in powerful ways.

But, somebody has to go find them.

The Disciples Were First Called Christians…

No longer were they just spreading the teachings of Christ, they had embodied Jesus’ heart.

Jesus came to throw open the doors of the Kingdom.

The message of the gospel is that there is now hope for all of the cultural rejects, the hopeless, and the helpless because the Kingdom of God has been opened to them.

We humans like clubs with exclusive memberships because they make us feel important. We like to be in the “in crowd” which makes us misread Jesus.

But, the gospel of the kingdom is that the grace of God is not at all exclusive. It is open to everyone…

We misread the sermon on the mount…the beatitudes

We read as if Jesus is presenting a list of favorable attributes that qualify us for the Kingdom.

Poor in spirit.

Mourning

Meekness

Desiring righteousness and justice

Merciful

Purity of heart

Peacemakers

We feel that this is a description of the pius people that Jesus welcomes into the Kingdom.

But when we study these phrases that Jesus uses in the Sermon On The Mount, we recognize that this is not a list of favorable attributes to be sought after. Jesus is opening the Kingdom to the rejected and overlooked in the culture.

The Beatitudes are lists of human “lasts” who at the individualized touch of the heavens become divine “firsts.”

The poor in spirit are religiously lost…they don’t know their bibles…they don’t know how to pray…they don’t how to navigate spiritual things…there is no virtue in it

The mourner can become a burden…nobody likes to be too long around sad people…many who mourn often end up alone…there is no virtue in it, really. But Jesus has opened the Kingdom to mourner and this is blessed news.

Blessed are the meek might be read, “blessed are the shy ones”...they step of the sidewalk to let others by, they don’t speak up for themselves, the can’t look you in the eye. The are not the ones everybody is eager to be friends with, but they are blessed in the Kingdom…

And on and on it goes…

The Beatitudes place before us the same question that Acts 11 raises. WHO DO WE REGARD AS THE MOST UNFORTUNATE, MOST UNDESIRABLE PEOPLE OF OUR DAY? AND DO WE BELIEVE THAT JESUS LOVES THEM, AND DESIRES TO BLESS THEM WITH HIS VERY PRESENCE IN THEIR PERSONAL LIVES?

If we judge by our social media feeds, we could assess that the most unfortunate people in the world today are

the fat,

the misshapen,

the bald,

the ugly,

the old,

whoever is not those not relentlessly engaged in romance, sex, and fashion, fitness, entrepreneurship and international travel.

If we look around our families and neighborhoods, we recognize even more pain…more pushed aside.

And the question is can we believe for ourselves and proclaim in the world a gospel that picks up where Jesus left off?

Blessed are the physically repulsive,

Blessed are those who smell bad,

Blessed are the twisted, misshapen, and deformed,

Blessed The too big, too little, too loud,

Blessed are The bald and the fat,

Blessed are the old—

Blessed are the drop-outs and burned-out.

Blessed are the broke and the broken.

Blessed are the drug addicts

Blessed are the divorced.

Blessed are the HIV-positive and herpes-ridden.

Blessed are the brain-damaged and the incurably ill.

Blessed are the barren and the pregnant too-many-times or pregnant at the wrong time.

Blessed are the overemployed, the underemployed, the unemployed.

Blessed are the unemployable.

Blessed are the swindled, the shoved aside, the replaced.

Blessed are the parents with children living on the street,

Blessed are the children with parents dying in the nursing home.

Blessed are the lonely,

Blessed are the incompetent,

Blessed are the stupid.

Blessed are the emotionally starved and mentally unwell

The gospel of the kingdom is that no person is beyond the reach of Jesus. The Kingdom of heaven is available to everyone.

We have to receive this gospel for ourselves first…that regardless of the how the world might look down us or things about us or people like us, WE ARE SCANDALOUSLY BLESSED because Jesus has come into our lives and redeemed us and given us a hope and a future.

And then as we experience the blessedness, we must resist the human urge to bar the door…we must continue to invite those that the world would cast aside.

If we commit ourselves to this, we will see the movement come alive again that Jesus started…JESUS DESIRES THE UNDESIRABLES.

To Love Us

To Use Us

1 Corinthians 1:27 ESV

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;