God’s Mission

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a blessing to share the word of God with the Saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist Church. Our church exists by grace, for glory, in love.

When I was fresh out of college, my first “big kid” job was to be a sales representative with Verizon Cellular Sales. The company I was working for put forth a great amount of resources to make sure that fresh salesmen like myself were prepared when we hit the store. They shipped us off to Louisville where we would spend an entire week in phone sales boot camp. Now a lot has changed in the decade since I was there so I don’t think I’d be much help deciphering your phone bill now, but at the time we were given all the ins and outs. We walked through every phone on the market at that time, pointing out strengths and weaknesses. We talked about customer psychology and how to look for up-sales. We were given very tool that we needed to accomplish the company and our own personal missions which was: Make money.

So I had been given the tools and been taught the mission. I was then sent back to the Lexington market, ready to start stacking up the sales and accomplishing our mission.

I showed up to work that first day, feeling good, ready to go. Then that door opened, it was my turn to take the customer!… and I forgot every single thing I had been taught. I fumbled through the introduction, struggled to figure out how to help the customer, and probably looked like a doofus. After a minute or two, I took a moment to internally collect myself. And I reminded myself, you have a job to do. You know your mission. You know the companies mission. Get a hold of yourself and make money!

So I got back at it, remembered my training, and made some small sell. I honestly don’t even remember all the details from that moment, but I do remember thinking through the mission, getting over my nerves, and accomplishing the task before me.

I bring all of this up because as we have been walking through the book of Acts, for the last couple of weeks, we have been witnessing the early church, particularly the early Jewish believers, put the rubber to the road on living out their newfound faith in Christ and joining in on God’s mission.

But here’s the thing, sometimes we have a hard time getting over ourselves and our own shortcomings to fully participate in the mission. The early Jewish Christians had been trained in God’s promises. They had the benefit of being raised to know Old Testament and were shown how it all pointed to Jesus. This is a great advantage and blessing! I think God for being raised in Christian home myself because it allowed me to be raised in the Word. But as the early Jewish Christians were confronted with God’s mission of expanding His kingdom beyond the Israelites, into the gentile nations, some of the early believers hesitated. Much like I forgot my training in the moment, these early believers had the promises of God—but forgot how wide His grace was when it came to practice. They fumbled to put what they had found in Christ, the training that that had received into practice. They weren’t even sure if they were ready to receive this new calling. They had to be reminded that God’s mission is their mission and go forward serving God in faith even into new and uncomfortable waters.

With this in mind, turn in your Bibles to Acts 11. Today we will once again be walking through the entire chapters broken up into four sections. This morning we will see the challenge of embracing God’s mission but the glory that ensues when we do.

Here is the Big Idea: God’s mission is bigger than our expectations, and we when we embrace it with open hearts glory follows.

Let’s begin by looking at the major challenge the early believers faced in embracing God’s mission when their boundaries were challenged. Read with me verses 1 through 18.

I. God’s Mission Challenges Our Boundaries (Acts 11:1-18)

Acts 11:1–18 ESV

1 Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” 4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa 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. 6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. 11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; 14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 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?” 18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Now, the largest portion of this section is a recapitulation of everything that we walked through last week. Peter described the vision he recieved from the Lord and how God worked through that vision to embolden Peter to go to the home of Cornelius and share the Gospel. While there Cornelius and his house hold would hear the gospel, believe it, and be baptized as a proclamation that Jesus is their Savior.

We covered those events last week, so today I want to focus on what’s happening around Peter’s retelling. Look closely at verses 1 through 3. After Peter stayed with the new believers for some time, certainly discipling and teaching them, he makes his way back up to Jerusalem.

Now, I think that most of us would expect Peter to get a warm reception. He went out on a mission and many people were saved! What’s not to celebrate!? This past Sunday night, we were surprised with a visit from AJ and Barb Hensley, some of our missionaries to Brazil. While they were with us, AJ shared some of the wonderful things they are doing particularly with the Seminary they have started and how pastors are being trained to plant churches. How awkward would it have been if AJ completed his presentation and we all just looked at him and went, “BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.”

That’d be ridiculous! But it is essentially what happened with Peter! The response from the Jewish believers was not excitement but disdain! “The Circumcision party refers to a group of Jewish believers who have issues with the Gentile believers. They are Jews with a high regard for the ongoing place of the ceremonial law, including the laws regarding food and circumcision. They are willing to welcome the Gentiles only if these new believers undergo circumcision. Until then they are critical of Peter not only for going to the Gentiles (“uncircumcised men”) but also for eating with them (v. 3). From their viewpoint, to eat with someone, to share table fellowship, is to accept and identify with them, not to mention to come into contact with unclean things and people restricted by the Mosaic law. These Gentiles were born unclean and remain so. Their food is unclean, as are their houses and basically everything about them.”

So they aren’t excited that Peter reached this new group, they’re upset! And while they will come to accept Peter’s action after he tells the full story, you should note that this group will show up again in Acts 15, as well as throughout some of Paul’s epistles, this group will continue to promote legalism rather than celebrate grace. Their desire for external righteousness hindered them from supporting inward conversion! Their self-righteousness was challenging their acceptance of God’s mission. So when they got word of Peter dining with gentiles, they were aghast. Then Peter tells them everything that happen and look again at the response.

Acts 11:17–18 ESV

17 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?” 18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Peter very plainly lays out that God’s mission includes the gentiles, whether they like it or not. There is no doubt that God’s mission is to save people from all nations. From the great commission extending to the ends of the earth, to Peter’s vision about all nations being clean, to the falling of the Holy Spirit on the new gentile believers, the evidence is overwhelming. God’s mission includes saving people from all nations. This revelation challenges and expands the Jewish believers understanding of who belongs to God’s Kingdom. When they hear Peter, they all fall silent and glorify God. In this glorious moment, they are beginning to grasp the massive grace of God and shear grandeur of His plan. When we embrace God’s mission, glory ensues!

When it comes to us in the church today, we see two applications from this challenge to the early believers acceptance of God’s mission. One to emulate, and one to avoid.

Let’s first look at what to avoid. You see the Circumcision Party, the staunch Jewish believers, were so caught up in their tradition that they were initially appalled at the work used by God to further His kingdom. It’s reminiscent of how the Pharisees treat Jesus and His disciples in Matthew 12. There the Pharisees accuse the the disciples of breaking the sabbath because they plucked some grain to eat while walking to their next destination on the Sabbath. Then Jesus heals a man with a withered hand also on the Sabbath. Instead of glorify the miraculous work of God, the Pharisees leave in anger and plot to kill Jesus. The folks who were mad in our passage this morning were genuine believers, saved and sealed for glory, but the hole in their holiness was that they still clung onto their traditions and sought self-righteousness rather than glorifying God. And church, if we aren’t careful, we can have the same hole in our holiness! We can gravitate to the traditions and rules that we like, or we grew up with, and then discount the work that God is doing somewhere because it doesn’t meet our standards. Now this does not mean that we have no standards, it means that we are to ensure that our standards our God standards! Not defined by our culture, but by God’s Word. We don’t want to pursue a church that revolves around us, we pursue a church that revolves around Christ! I’m glad that you’ll find people wearing t shirts and ties, firefighters and farmers, Kentucky fans and even that ugly orange, folks from all walks of life. But we still have to guard ourselves from drawing extrabiblical lines that prevent us from welcoming others.

While we avoid creating extrabiblical boundaries, we should emulate glorifying God when we have been biblically corrected. Verse 18, when they heard these things they fell silent and glorified God. They saw that they were out of line. And instead of digging deeper, they repented and showed that repentance by glorifying God! I said in our introduction that we will see how embracing God’s mission leads to glory, well as we progress through the rest of the text, we will see glorious expansion in new folks coming to Christ, but let it be understood that a believer growing in grace, progressing in sanctification, having that hole in your holiness filled with the Word and Spirit of God, is no less glorious! It should fill our hearts with joy as we come to see our lives conformed to Christ. God’s mission is not limited to ONLY sharing the gospel with others that they would come to know Christ, that is a wonderful part of it. But do not forget that God’s mission also includes working IN us, He began a good work in us and will bring it to completion. As a church and individual believers, it is challenging to our preferences confronted, but when we embrace God’s mission in us and around us, it is glorious.

Let’s now look to the next three verses and be reminded of the means through which God accomplishes His mission.

II. God’s Mission Goes Forward Through Ordinary Believers (Acts 11:19-21)

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.

So thus far in chapter 11, we have focused on the church in Jerusalem. Now our focus is switching to a church some 300 miles away, the church in Antioch. Antioch was a very different place from Jerusalem. It was called the “the abode of the gods” because several Greek deities were worshiped there, Zeus, Poseidon, and Adonis amongst others. Next door to Antioch was the city Daphne, known for worshiping Artemis, Apollos, and Astarte. It was a large city with 500 thousand inhabitants at that time. It has been described as cosmopolitan and commercial. It was the crossroads for trade, having major highways going north, south, and east.

While Antioch’s religious background would make it a difficult place to start a church, it’s location would make it the perfect spring board for growing the church across the world.

We find in verse 19 that some of the Christians who were driven out of Jerusalem by persecution would find their way to Antioch and call it home. They are living quiet lives, only sharing their faith with other Jews they come in contact with. Then some jewish christians from Cyrene and Cyprus make their way to Antioch and shake everything up by preaching to Hellenists, here referring not to greek speaking Jews as it has previously in acts, but gentiles. And we see a great acceptance of the gospel and many coming to faith.

The big take away from this sections is that God’s mission goes forward through ordinary believers.

Look back through this section. This is one of the most important moments in the history of the early church. The church at Antioch will serve to be a missional hub that is vital for the early church. This is the very beginning of this extremely important piece! Yet not a single person is identified by name! “Those who were scattered” “some men of Cyprus”. We aren’t given their names in Scripture. From our perspective they’ve been lost to history. We know almost nothing about the people who God used to break through in this pivotal location.

As we seek to embrace God’s mission, we need to recognize that God primarily works through ordinary people! You may not think that you can make much difference for the kingdom of God, but my dear friend, you are selling yourself and your God short! These men in our text were just being faithful to Jesus. No plan. No program. Just zeal for the Lord and He works them in spectacular ways! In our culture we can be tempted to think that we don’t have a big enough platform to make a difference. We don’t have a talk show. We aren’t social media influencers. No one is going to listen to us. But we are selling ourselves and our God short! We are called to be faithful like these men in our text, then as we are faithful, like the men in our text, we also have, verse 21, the hand of the Lord with us! Any good that comes from sharing the gospel comes from Him and is for His glory! You don’t have to build a platform to be faithful and you can rely on the power of God to save folks! One pastor said, “While it’s nice to have Tim Tebow speak at a church gathering, it’s [even] better to have our entire congregations daily spreading the good news within their many relationships.”

So where is God calling you to be His faithful witness? God can and will use you to further His kingdom through your obedience to share the gospel and His power to fulfill it!

Some of the most satisfying videos to watch on the internet, in my opinion, are videos of intricate dominos set all across a building, they’re placed in beautiful designs, they twist and turn in interesting ways, they’re an incredible chain of events. I could watch them for hours. I’ve seen some awesome domino displays. And what’s interesting as I think about it is that each of those dominos has a number. As you watch them topple over, you aren’t thinking about what number is on each individual domino, you’re not think about who it is. But if you’ve ever seen a domino display, you know each and every domino is important. They are working in unison to accomplish the creator’s vision. Church, if you know the Lord, then you are apart of the creator’s grand vision, His mission. You might ordinary. That’s okay! I’m ordinary! But God has placed you where you are and is working through you to accomplish His mission! Embrace His mission and see the glorious results as the gospel continues to go out.

As we do this, we are strengthened in our service by encouragement. Look to verses 22-26

III. Embracing God’s Mission is Strengthened by Encouragement (Acts 11:22-26)

Acts 11:22–26 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.

So word has made its way back to the home base of the Christian church, the church in Jerusalem. They send Barnabas out to check on the new believers in Antioch. Barnabas loves what he sees and encourages them to remain faithful and then he calls in his old buddy Saul, bringing him back in the mix from his time in Tarsus to help out this group of new believers. They stay there for a year making disciples.

This verses prior to this showed how God accomplishes His mission through ordinary believers. This section shows how God encourages believers through intentional discipleship.

Read again verses 23 and the second half of 26:

Acts 11:23 ESV

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,

Acts 11:26 ESV

For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

Barnabas and Saul pour into the people teaching them, encouraging them, spurring them on in the faith! Church, don’t over look the blessing of encouragement. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 “11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”

I’ve been talking about discipleship a lot lately, particularly in our discipleship course on Sunday Evening. If you haven’t been able to make it, you really should. But this begs the question, what is discipleship? Well, a disciple is a learner, so discipleship involves teaching. We certainly should be teaching sound, biblical theology in how we think about and talk about God and His creation. But discipleship also involves encouraging. Stirring up real practice. Its transferring knowledge AND providing accountability. It’s caring for the hearts and the minds of others. That’s what we’re doing through our Sunday Evening study right now, but it should also be a regular rhythm in our lives. God designed us to be a communal people rely on one another. We recognize this in every field of life but neglect it in the church. Our athletes have coaches, student have teachers, workers have mentors, church we ought to be building up others while being built up ourselves. Who are you mentoring in the faith? Who is discipling you? Are you being an encouragement to others in the church?

This ought to be a place where we are strengthening together. We do that through intentional discipleship centered around God’s Truth and encouraging one another to live it out.

Our embrace of God’s mission is strengthened by encouragement and results in glory. Look with me to the final portion of our text this morning:

IV. God’s Mission Moves Us to Generous Action (Acts 11:27-30)

Acts 11:27–30 ESV

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.

So while Barnabas and Saul were discipling the new believers in Antioch, there comes word that a famine is coming to the whole known world at that time. In 45 AD the Nile River would flood, damaging one of the primary sources of grain. As a result grain prices would skyrocket throughout the Roman World, kinda like egg prices in America, but much more severe.

Then we see this Key Verse: Acts 11:29 – “So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea.”

Picture this: The Antioch church, filled with new Gentile believers, hears of an upcoming famine. Instead of ignoring the need, they give sacrificially to help their Jewish brothers in Judea. Their generosity reflects a heart transformed by the gospel. They glorified God by strengthening their fellow believers in their time of need. Once divided by background, now united by the blood of Christ.

Church we need to understand: God’s mission moves us to generous action. True faith leads to tangible action—generosity, service, and meeting needs. Are we willing to give sacrificially for the sake of others? How can we show the love of Christ through generosity today? Do we recognize that God is working through us and we glorify Him when we support the fellow believers in his church, near and afar, those who look like us, and those from different cultural backgrounds?

Church, I’ll end with this. I’ve spoken much about embracing God’s Mission this morning. Do you know what God’s mission is? It’s fairly simple to state, though robust in its grandeur: God’s mission is to glorify Himself by redeeming a people from every nation, tribe, and language, and restoring all of creation through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

The question now is: Will We Embrace God’s Mission?

Like Peter, the early believers, and the Antioch church, we must embrace God’s mission—even when it stretches us.

Call to Action: Where is God calling you to step out in faith? How can we participate in His mission this week?

God’s mission is bigger than our expectations, and when we embrace it, we see lives transformed—including our own. He accomplishes His mission through ordinary believers, we are strengthened by mutual encouragement, and propelled to generous service, all for the very glory of God.

But before we can embrace God’s mission, we have to first embrace God. As we've seen in Acts 11, the Jewish believers had to come to terms with something radical: God’s grace is even bigger than they thought. The good news is this—God’s grace is still bigger than we can imagine and He is still opening the door of salvation to folks from all backgrounds, including you.

Like Cornelius and his household or the gentiles in Antioch, you don’t have to come from the “right background,” know all the rules, or clean yourself up first. You just have to come through Jesus, the One who lived the perfect life you couldn’t, died the death you deserved, and rose again to give you new life. It all centers on Christ.

The gospel is not about jumping through hoops. It’s not about working your way up to God. It’s about a Savior who came down to you, took your place, and now brings you into the family.

Acts 11:17 says, “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?”

And here’s the truth: nothing and no one can stand in the way of God’s grace—not your past, not your doubts, not your struggles, not your history.

🙌 Invitation – “Step Through the Door”

So let me ask you: Have you stepped through the open door of grace? Have you trusted in Jesus—not religion, not tradition, not your own efforts—but in Him? Have you turned from your sin and turned to Him?

If not, today can be the day. Right now, where you are, you can turn to Him in faith.

If you’re ready to step through that open door, come forward today—we’d love to pray with you and walk with you as you begin this journey with Jesus

Let’s Pray.