Acts 11:19-30

We all want to be a part of a movement. We love being a part of something bigger than ourselves. Each of us wants to be lost in the crowd. Lost in a crowd with people who are like us, people who have the same vision for the world that we do. We long to be a part of a movement. We long to be a part of something bigger than ourselves because we recognize that we can’t do it all. We can’t materialize our vision for the world on our own. We need other people - people who have the same vision, the same dreams, the same goals.

But while we all long for a movement, we also are all afraid of movements, because movements let us down. Movements are filled with sinful people like you and me, people with significant flaws and compromised ambitions. Movements are easily co-opted by sinful desires and destructive goals, which is why it’s so hard to be part of a movement! Many of us today are scratching our heads as to what movements we should align ourselves with - which vision for the world, which set of goals? It’s so hard to be a part of a movement because they are filled with people, and we know oh so well that people will disappoint us.

So we have this tension in our hearts. We all long to be a part of a movement because we want to see the world changed, we want to be a part of a community of people doing the things that we believe to be most significant in this world, and yet we are always let down by the movements of this world.

This is why Jesus gave us the church. Because we long for a movement, but every movement created by humanity fails. And after weeks of chest beating political conventions and at the outset of an election cycle that will, if it hasn’t already, come to define the majority of our public discourse, hear that truth again: while we all long to be a part of a movement, every movement created by humanity fails. The only movement that never fails, will never end, and will achieve the change that it seeks with blessed assurance is the movement of Jesus Christ and his church.

So this morning we’re going to take a look at this movement of Jesus which is his church and we’ll look at three things: first, we find our joy in Christ’s movement. Second, we find our identity in Christ’s movement, and finally we find purpose in Christ’s movement. So look with me at chapter 11 verse 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. 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 here we see the continuing work of Jesus to bring together the Jew and the Gentile into one community, showing us that ours is a God of inclusion, a God who pursues those who are distant from him, who are lost, and we see the movement of this God coming to Antioch. And when word of this reached the HQ of the movement back in Jerusalem, they send Barnabas to see all that God had done among the Gentiles, and Barnabas sees the work, he sees the grace of God, and he was glad. He rejoiced. He was glad. He found joy in Christ’s movement.

I’ve had conversations with three different people over the past few weeks about prayer. Three different people told me how their prayer life had changed during the course of this pandemic. Each of them felt that this season was challenging their typical prayer life, so they went to Scripture to hear the prayers of God’s people, and they were astonished to find that the prayers of the Bible were so different from their own. So often we are the focus of our prayers: Lord, I have these issues and these problems and these conflicts and I pray that you help solve them. And it’s not that petitions are wrong, Jesus himself tells us to pray for our daily bread and daily protection. But the vast majority of the prayers in Scripture are God-centered. Praising God for what he has done, what he is doing, and what he promises to do. Celebrating who he is and what he’s done. And the reason for that is because the quickest way to having the heart of Christ is to celebrate the work that he is doing. The best way to love what Jesus loves, is to find joy in his movement, in the work of his church.

Barnabas sees the work of Christ, and he was glad. His joy was found in the movement of Jesus. We should be celebrating Christ’s work far more than we are. We should celebrate what he’s doing in this church community, but also in the work of our brothers and sisters in other churches, other denominations. When was the last time you asked your friends who attend a different church in our area how the Lord was moving in and through them? They are your fellow workers, your family members, and we should celebrate the ways that Christ’s movement is at work, and if we want to cultivate the heart of Christ, we must be glad in the work that he is doing.

So first we find our joy in Christ’s movement and second we find our identity in that movement. Verse 25:

“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.”

They were first called Christians. The name Christian is not something that we should be ashamed of. Often it’s a temptation of ours to avoid that label, and I get it. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had that have just shut down after answering the simple question, “So what do you do for a living?” Most likely you’ve danced around the subject of your faith at one time or another in order to fit in or be accepted, but here’s the thing: the name Christian has always been name of humiliation.

Most scholars believe that the disciples did not self-identify as Christians. Rather, those on the outside, the Romans and others, they called this community, the Christians, or the little Christs. This was not a term of endearment. They were making a statement that these people, these little Christs, they were dumb because they followed a failure. The leader of their movement was hung on a cross and they are too dumb to realize what a failure that makes him. Because Roman gods don’t die by human hands.

The name Christian has never been a name of endearment or acceptance, it has always been a name of humiliation, but this is who we are. We are not a socially acceptable people! We are odd. We are strange. We’re a fringe group. We’re the people who say if you want to truly live you have to die. We’re the people who say if you want to truly be free, you must become a slave. We shouldn’t be ashamed to be called Christians because this is the truth of our Savior. He was so rejected, so misunderstood, and so humiliated that he was killed by this world. We are not ashamed of this name, but we embrace it: because this is who we are. We take on the name of his movement, we find our identity in this movement, and so we shouldn’t be surprised when we’re not accepted by our culture or when we’re misunderstood. Now, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to seek people in our culture, or love people in our culture, but we shouldn’t be shocked if they think we’re dumb, because that’s exactly what they thought about Jesus and the first century church.

So we find our joy in the movement, we find our identity in the movement, and finally we find purpose. Verse 27:

“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 (this took place in the days of Claudius). So the disciples determined, every one 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.”

What we see here is a major component of our movement as the church. Our movement has always been characterized by relief because the God that we worship is the God of relief. Foundational to our faith is this idea that we have been delivered from our sins and our addiction to destruction. We were completely helpless and unable to do anything to save us from ourselves, growing further and further away from God. But in his great love, God sent the Son to relieve us of our sins.

God was the first and greatest sender of relief. Jesus has given us everything that we have, which means when we see someone who is in need, we see ourselves. We give relief because Christ first gave us relief. Relief is the work of the church, because it is the work of Christ. You will find no greater fulfillment and no stronger sense of purpose than joining the relief work of Jesus in this world.

So where is the Lord calling you to invest in the movement more fully today? Do you need to find greater joy in the movement? Need to celebrate the work of God more? Need to cultivate a heart that loves what Christ loves? Do you need to find more of your identity in this movement? To be a foolish little Christ? To look ridiculous to the world? Or do you need to find a deeper fulfillment in the work of the movement? To join in God’s plan to send relief to the lost and broken people of this city? Where is the Lord calling you to invest more fully in his movement, in his church today?