Good morning Gospel City Church. Grab your Bibles and open to Acts 11:19-30. And why don’t you do me a favor and just stand to your feet as you do that. And let’s just allow God’s Word to speak to us in the room today as we begin. Scripture says to not forsake the public reading of God’s Word. This is a moment of worship, a privilege to open the very breathed-out words of God and allow them to speak. And so let’s look at Acts 11:19-30 together.
Now hear the Word of the Lord.
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.
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.
This is God’s Word for us today. You may go ahead and have a seat. And if I may just speak to the moment for a second, I believe God’s Word is always timely and that His Spirit knows what we need to hear when we need to hear it. And today we’re looking at a remarkable church in the New Testament, the church at Antioch.
The church at Antioch, any local church, Gospel City Church is a product of God’s grace and not man’s ingenuity. And when God is doing something new, we have the opportunity to trust the hand of the Lord and to be gladdened by His grace. And I know that change is hard and some of you get pumped about change and some of you get really discouraged about change. I’ve been feeling a lot of different kinds of changes and you’re seeing a lot of different kinds of changes. And I don’t know what’s going on in your individual lives. I won’t pretend that you’re not going through your own changes and difficulties and struggles and all of those kinds of things.
I’m in between all the different kinds of emotions the last couple weeks. And the thing that we get to do as believers is believe what we are singing, believe oh how good is He if He never did another thing for me, how good is our great God. And when God is doing something new- I said this last week- God has been doing new things since the beginning of time. You remember at Creation when He spoke things, creation into existence. He said that it was good, right?
It was only not good when there was disobedience. It was only not good when there was sin and resistance. And so as Christians, we have an opportunity that when the Lord is doing something new, we trust the hand of the Lord and we get gladdened by His grace. I believe we’ll see that in the text today as Barnabas goes to Antioch.
In the first 18 verses of chapter 11, God was also doing something new. You’ll remember last week Peter was at Cornelius’ house. He travels now down to Jerusalem to tell the counsel, Hey, a bunch of Gentiles just gave their life to Jesus, and we baptized them and it was awesome. And that was a massive shift for the Jews, remember?
And when Peter goes and tells the council in Jerusalem, he was met with resistance and unbelief. Either you will resist what God is doing, you will disbelieve what He can do when He’s doing something new, or you will choose to trust the hand of the Lord and be gladdened by His grace. And if we do that, we will always taste and see that the Lord is good. I think that that’s what it means to be a Christian.
And as you heard in today’s text, Antioch was the first place where the followers of Jesus got the name Christian. Look in verse 26 of the text. It says in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. So first it was in derision as a ridicule, but it quickly became a badge of honor for believers that has made it all the way to us here today. Here we sit and we call ourselves Christians, a big idea in the text today that I’ll give to you is this: If you call yourself a Christian, live up to your name. If you call yourself a Christian, live up to your name.
The word Christian literally means “little Christ” or “belonging to the party of Christ.” The title spoke to the extreme transformation in the lives of the Jews and the Gentiles that were living in Antioch. There was such a transformation taking place in these believers as they were under the teaching of the Word of God, as they were becoming like Christ, that their party, their group, needed to be identified.
Have you ever heard of the term “Jesus freak”? Anybody heard that term before? Yeah, so in the late 1960’s/1970’s the Jesus movement (Jesus is still moving, by the way) but during that period lots of people were coming to Christ. And I imagine that’s kind of how the word Christian came to be. There were these people who started to be all about Jesus. Their music was about Jesus. They wanted to talk about Jesus. It was Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
And so the world started saying They’re a bunch of Jesus freaks. And it was kind of a pejorative, derogatory term. And yet instead of being offended by it, it was embraced as a complement. And in the 90’s there was a song DC Talk called “Jesus Freak.” Anybody know that song? Yeah. And a line in that song says, “I don’t really care if they label me a Jesus Freak, because there ain’t no disguising the truth.”
And I think that that’s exactly what was happening with this term Christian. Pastor Brent and I will rock that out for you one day. You’re not ready yet. But to be a Christian in Antioch was to be separate, to be set apart, and to clearly identify with Christ. Antioch was this massive city, third largest city in the Roman world. Very affluent, very diverse and very sinful. So think Las Vegas. Think New York City in the statues.
So if you were claiming to be a Christian, you were very different from the culture that was around you. Everybody knew who the Christians were in the city of Antioch. The problem with the word Christian for us in America is that everybody identifies as Christians or at least you know somebody who identifies as Christians.
I was kind of doing some research this week. There is just under 330 million people in the U.S, ok? And I came across this from the Pew Research Center. In the U.S., roughly three in ten adults now religiously are unaffiliated. So you see in 2021, 63% of the population identifies with Christianity. That number just ten years ago in 2005, it was at 80% of the population identified as a Christian. They would say Yeah, I’m a Christian. And that number is slowly decreasing.
A number that is slowly rising are people who identify as none. I don’t have any faith. I’m an atheist. I don’t want to deal with religion, 29%. Now that’s sad, but kind of a cool thing happening in the world is more and more people are recognizing that they actually don’t want to live up to the name. They don’t live up to the name of Christ and they have no desire to. So more and more people are saying that. And yet 63% is a lot of people who claim to be Christians, who claim to belong to the party of Christ.
And now if you do a little more research and read some of the like Barna things, you can cut that number in half drastically by people who would say I am a Christian based on the blood of Jesus alone. That number cuts in half instantly, ok? And so we can kind of whittle that number down, but 63% of people in the world identifying with Christianity is a lot of people.
I had some conversations this week with different students. I get to have conversations with students all the time and undoubtedly what comes about, you know, we were talking about goals this week. And every time we talk about goals I hear, “Hey, I’m going to be in the NBA someday. I’m going to be the next Steph Curry. I’m going to be the next Labron James.” And when I was a kid I did the same thing. I’m like Mike. I’m a mini MJ on the court. The only thing I had right was that I was mini on the court.
And the truth is there is a big difference in me saying I’m like Michael Jordan and me putting in the work and the drive and the effort to be like Michael Jordan. There’s a big difference in saying I’m the next Steph Curry and me actually shooting 2,000 shots a week like Steph Curry does. Total difference.
And so to say I’m a Christian and not to imitate Christ in my life are two very different things. If you call yourself a Christian, live up to the name. That’s really what Barnabas goes to Antioch today to encourage and foster in this remarkable church that Christ was building in the city of Antioch. It was a great church, arguably the most influential church in the New Testament. It was a sending church. It was a church planting church. It was a missional church. It was a city church, a city within the city. God was doing something miraculous in this sin city, this diverse city. God was building a church of believers who stood out and who sent out and who were world focused and who weren’t focused on themselves.
So this morning let’s heed the words that Barnabas said to the church at Antioch as we seek to live up to our names as Christians at Gospel City, ok? The first point that I’ll give to you is this: Christians remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. Christians remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. That’s point number one.
The Lord really used that exhortation in my life this summer. So I was on Sabbatical over the summer. You guys know that. And I was away for some time. And I didn’t know we’d be going through Acts. I didn’t know I’d be preaching this passage today. And I think I was reading through the 100, the New Testament 100 days thing. And I came across that phrase. “Remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. And the Lord met me in my quiet time and I was just reflecting on it.
And I was kind of going back through a journal as I was preparing this week. And I came across what I wrote on July 14, 2021. Can I share it with you what I wrote on July 14, 2021? So these are unedited. I just put them on the screen for you. But I wrote each word of the phrase that he said and I was kind of going over each word. And I think it goes so well with the text that we see.
So the first thing that Barnabas encourages the Christians to do is to remain. And I wrote, “Don’t waver. Stay resolved and planted regardless of the circumstance. Abide. These Christians lost Stephen and saw the persecution, but they were charged to remain.”
If you look in your text at verse 19, so it says, 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 the Jews. (Acts 11:19)
So the Jews, you know, the Palestinian Jews, the Jews from Jerusalem, they took that very seriously. This is only a message for us. So they were only preaching the message boldly to Jews. but then God, let’s look in verse 20.
But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists (That’s the Greeks, the Gentiles) also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. (Acts 11:20-21)
So these Christians, these believers, didn’t go to Antioch because they wanted to move to the big city. They didn’t go to Antioch because they wanted to live in their dream location. They were taken to Antioch because of persecution that was happening in their hometown. Life took them to Antioch. And rather than trying to get out of what life was, where life was taking them, what life was calling them to do, they were charged to remain. And they took serious the mission of making disciples as they remained where life took them. They didn’t waver regardless of their circumstances. They abide in the truth.
The second word that Barnabas says, remain faithful. I wrote, “Full of faith. Walk by faith and not by sight. Save physical sight for heaven. For now, walk by what you can’t see. Please the Lord. Clean hands, pure hearts and holiness tied around our necks.”
And I love that idea of like our physical sight as believers is saved, is now reserved, for heaven where we will look on our Savior face to face. When Saul was saved he loses his physical sight and yet he begins to walk in faith with the Lord. That’s what the Lord requires of us often. Think of these believers who scattered from their household. They didn’t know what was going on. Why would God call us and then put us through this pain? Why would God call us and take us to a new location? I don’t know. I can’t see it. But I can walk by faith in what I can’t see.
And they’re charged to remain faithful to the Lord. The object of our worship, our Master, our reason for breathing. Don’t forget. Elevate nothing above Him or beside Him. His name is to be proclaimed. His cross is to be known. To Him and for Him do we live and move and have being. Don’t forget it. I was yelling at myself. Don’t forget it, Micah! Because I want to forget those things. I want to forget that Jesus, that the Lord, is the object of my worship, is the object of my abiding, is the object of my faith.
And when I forget, I get my eyes on myself and I get off mission. Barnabas is charging them, “Remain faithful to the Lord.” And then he says, “With steadfast.” Steady. Unshakable. Unchanging. Urgent. Dutifully firm and unwavering. Loyal to the mission.
Don’t care what you’re going through. Don’t care what circumstances are happening. I don’t know what change is coming. I don’t know what change you’re discouraged about. But we stay steady and unshakable and unchanging and urgent and dutifully firm and unwavering and loyal to the mission that Christ has called us to because it’s our purpose. And our purpose is to preach Christ and Him crucified. Faithfulness to the Lord fuels our purpose and our purpose help us remain faithful on the hardest days.
Here’s these people who life had brought them to the city of Antioch. And they remained faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, preaching the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them. A great number believed. And the report makes it all the way back to Jerusalem. I think it’s cool that there’s no name attached to the church at Antioch. They didn’t have this church get started because they had the best mega pastor on the planet or the guy with the biggest charisma.
Look in verses 19-24. You don’t have to read them, but I’ll just give you some of the phrases. It says, “Some of them,” the word them, were preaching Jesus to Jews and Greeks. It says, The hand of the Lord was with them. It says, The Jerusalem church heard about them and sent Barnabas who exhorted them. Them didn’t have a pastor but they had a purpose! Isn’t that awesome? Them didn’t have a pastor, but they had a purpose, and their purpose was to preach the Lord Jesus to everyone. The Jews were hesitant toward the Gentiles at first but then in the diverse city of Antioch they quickly found that the message of Jesus actually does break down barriers and prejudices.
And a pretty cool thing happens when people start responding to the message of the gospel. And when they respond and when they receive the Spirit, they’re unified in a family of God with Christ as the head. And such a cool thing was happening in Antioch that it makes it all the way back to Jerusalem.
And you know what they didn’t do? They didn’t say, Aw man, I’m threatened by the church in Antioch. They’re going to be bigger than us. They’re going to be better than us. They’re more flashy than us. They’re way hipper than us or they’re way cooler than us. No. They were like, This is awesome. Let’s send somebody to check it out.
And they send Barnabas to Antioch to bring some shepherding advice, some discipleship counsel. And when he got there, he saw that the Lord was doing a new thing and that it was a result of trusting the Lord’s hand and he was quickly gladdened by the grace of God.
Look in verse 23. It says, When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad.
When God is doing something new, Christians trust the hand of the Lord and are gladdened by His grace.
Sometimes I think we have trouble with our purpose as believers, as Christians, because we have trouble remaining. We could say things like, Man, if I was just over there I’d be able to fulfill my purpose really well. Oh, if I was just here in life I’d be on mission and I’d be purposeful. If was just…you fill in the blank…I’d be able to fulfill my purpose.
Another moment from our Sabbatical week. We spent a little bit of time down in the Charleston area, beautiful area. Anybody ever been to the Angel Oak Tree on Saint John’s Island? Anybody? Yeah? You’ve seen it? It’s a great tree. I mean, a tree like that deserves to be climbed. A tree like that deserves to have a tree house, an epic treehouse in it. Not this tree. It was like, “Do not climb,” and it had signs on it that said, “You may lightly pet or gently hug.”
And I was like, “None of you hug that tree.” And my kids were not feeling this morning. And when we left the park, my son Zion was sure to tell the woman that this was the most boring tree ever. So they weren’t digging it.
But I had a moment with this tree, ok? I was like, it came out of nowhere. I was looking at this tree and I was just having a moment of worship with the Lord. and all I could think was what I wanted my Christian life to look like as I looked at this tree.
And I wrote down Isaiah 61:1-3. I won’t read you the whole thing, but let me just summarize it to you. Isaiah 61:1-3 talks about the good news that would come to the poor. The coming Messiah will bind up the brokenhearted and open the prisons of those who are bound and comfort those who mourn. He’ll give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, a garment of praise instead of mourning, so that they would be (check this out) oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified.
Jesus can make you like that tree. The gospel-adorned life looks like tree. Plenty of arms and branches stretching out to the glory of God, worshiping God, bringing praise and adoration to the God of the universe, but plenty of arms reaching out to the people that God has put around us in the family of God so that we might serve others, so that we might love others, so that we might hold others up, so that we might spread the message of the gospel.
I noticed on the tree (it’s an old tree) that there were some branches like this laying on the ground and there were a few kinds of support beams or something that were holding some trees up. The gospel-adorned life, the person who remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose will have plenty of people to hold them up when life gets hard, when you go through circumstances that you didn’t foresee, when things get heavy, when you get old, the gospel-adorned life is surrounded by a family who cheers them on and holds them up.
And you know what this tree never said? This tree never said, You know what? If I was in Georgia, I’d be killing it right now. If I was just in another state I would be fulfilling my purpose. No. The Angel Oak Tree on Saint John’s Island has been planted and it has remained there through storm after storm, season after season, and it’s fulfilling its purpose. The Angel Oak Tree on Saint John’s Island lived up to its name. Lord, would You help us as Christians to live to our same as we remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose?
Now number two is really going to help you because I know everybody right now is like, I want to live up to my name. How do I do it? Here’s a great help for you. Christians live up to their name through discipleship. Christians live up to their name through discipleship. The truth for today is this: You cannot remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose apart from the Word of God.
As believers we abide in the Word of God. We are instructed by the Word of God. The teaching of the Word of God has to be at the heart of our discipleship. It must be at the heart of this church. Notice that Barnabas didn’t give them that exhortation and head back to Jerusalem. He didn’t say, “Hey, all you new converts, great job. Remain faithful. Well, see you later,” and go back. That’s not what he did.
Barnabas was gladdened by their passion. He encouraged them to continue and then he immediately went into disciple making disciple mode so this church would flourish for the city and for the world, and it did. A large reason that we’re here today is because of this church sending Saul, sending Barnabas, out into the world.
So look in verses 25 and 26 of the text. Verses 25 and 26. 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 (key word, taught) a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.
I mean, Barnabas is a good man. I said it a couple weeks ago. He saw Saul and he brought Saul into gospel community when nobody wanted to. Now he goes to Antioch and he’s encouraged and gladdened. He’s exhorting them to continue. And then he’s like, I actually know a guy who is pretty smart and needs a purpose in the kingdom of God.
So he goes and finds Saul in Tarsus and he’s like, I’ve got a mission for you. I’ve got something for you. Can you imagine Saul? He’s like, Finally! He goes to Antioch with them and him, Saul and Barnabas, they started the first Core classes at the church at Antioch and they begin to teach all that Crist had commanded. They begin to teach all that Jesus had said. They began to teach that the Old Testament actually pointed to Jesus the Messiah all along. And they began to grow as a church. They began to mature as a church. They began to depend on their roots as believers who remained faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. They began to live up to their name.
And here’s the truth. Disciples are at their best when they’re discipling others. Have you ever found that to be true in your life? Disciples are at their best when they are discipling other believers. Have you ever tutored someone? Anybody ever tutored someone?
I’m the worst tutor on the face of the planet. But my wife teaches our kids often, ok? And she, I’ve come home several times where she’s taught our kids history or science. And sometimes, with enthusiasm, she starts to tell me about what she’s been teaching the kids in history or in science. And as she’s enthusiastically telling me, I can tell that her knowledge of the subject and her understanding of the subject and her love for the subject has grown.
How much more true should that be in the faith and with the Word of God? As you begin to teach other believers, younger believers, your kids, anybody that God’s put in your life, as you teach them the Word of God, you discover that you love the Word of God so much more and it begins to transform you. There really is no such thing as a disciple who is not making disciples.
And you’re like, Yeah, I’m one of those. Like, no. You’re just a disciple who’s lost the mission. You’re a disciple who is not on mission. When you became a disciple of Jesus you’ve been placed, you’ve been put on the mission of making disciples. And so everybody in this room needs people who are more mature than them in the faith pouring into them, teaching them, someone that they can ask questions to, someone that they can pray with, someone that they can grow under.
But everybody else, everybody also needs people that they can pour into. Get around people that you can challenge. Get around people that you can point to Christ in their circumstances. Get around people that you can have gospel conversations with. And I promise you as you truy to teach others, as you try to pour into others, the Holy Spirit will pour into you and it’s a marvelous, beautiful thing.
It was the teaching of the Word of God that transformed the church at Antioch. Verse 26 where it describes them as being called Christians for the first time, that transformation, that name, wasn’t until they were taught to be like Christ. The city noticed a growth taking place in that year of teaching because the Word of God was transforming the believers in Antioch.
And how are we taught to be like Christ? We’re taught to be like Christ through the Word of God that’s sharper than any two-edged sword and profitable for reproof and correction and training in righteousness and teaching. That’s why every single week at Gospel City we are devoted to opening our Bibles. You hear it every week and it’s never going to stop. Open your Bibles.
It’s why we devote ourselves, submit ourselves, to rigorously and thoroughly unpack the actual meaning and purpose of what God breathed out. Because this isn’t a self-help book. This isn’t a do-it-for dummy book. It’s a meal. It’s sustenance for your soul. This will transform you into a little Christ if you’ll submit to it, if you’ll approach it asking the Spirit to show you what He wants to, if you’ll approach it asking the Spirit to show you Jesus, not how it can help you today with your problem.
I read a quote several weeks ago by Thomas Goodwin. It’s on the screen but it says this: “It’s not the letter of the Word that ordinarily converts, but the spiritual meaning of it as revealed and expounded.” So it’s not just the words on this page that convert you, that transform you. It’s the spiritual meaning as its revealed and expounded, as we submit to this teaching.
And then he goes on to say this: “When the juice of a medicinal herb is once drained out and applied, then it heals. And so it is the spiritual meaning of the Word let into the heart, which converts it and turns it to God.” The Word of God is like a healing balm for our soul. The Word of God is medicine for our heart and we strain it out and we submit to it and we look to it and we apply it. And it begins to shape us and make us into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
When we devote ourselves to being taught and being teachers of the Word we will be transformed, we will remain faithful. We will begin to gain the mind of Christ, which is so important for every believer. And we will begin to live up to our name.
Now as the text goes on in verses 27-30, it shows the Christians in Antioch being the hands and feet of Jesus. A prophet comes and tells of a famine that was going to take place, and that famine did take place in history.
In verse 29, look what it says. So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief (I love that phrase, “send relief”) to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. (Acts 11:29-30)
So their generosity in this moment was a byproduct of their discipleship. They weren’t giving under compulsion. It wasn’t this manipulative thing like, Hey, give to this organization or this fund. There was a need in a neighboring city and they’re like, without hesitation, We’re going to meet that need because we are like Christ. We are living up to our name.
An important thing. They had grown to have the mind of Christ so they undoubtedly could be the hands and feet of Christ. See, social justice and like meeting the needs of others and meeting the needs of the poor, all of that is a lot more sexy than discipleship. It can be. I think we have to be careful not to pat ourselves on the back by fueling, making ourselves look and feel like good disciples by being the hands and feet of Jesus before we transform our minds with the Word of God.
It can be really easy to look busy and to have all kinds of social relief, ministries and generous ministries. And yet if we forsake the teaching of the Word of God, oh my goodness. We’ll be lost. We’ll be walking down a path that leads to nowhere. And so the Word of Christ has to transform our mind and our heart so much that you can’t help but give and meet needs and be generous. That’s what becoming a little Christ looks like.
And so at Gospel City, that’s why we provide opportunities to go deeper into the Word of God, to dig deeper into the text, to dig deeper and apply it to our lives. And I guarantee you if a church this size is transformed by the Word of Christ we will undoubtedly be able to be the hands and feet of Jesus and meet needs without compulsion, cheerfully, joyfully, by the grace of God.
I’m going to invite the band to come on up. And we’re going to go out singing this morning. But just hang with me for one second. Can you look at your life and see a little Christ in you? A better question might be, can others look at your life and see you belong to the party of Christ? In the city of Antioch, people could see these people, these folks, and they were like undoubtedly they belong to the Body of Christ. Can people look at you that way? I know people can look at us and understand, you know, see what political party we belong to, what social party we belong to. Can they look at you and see that you belong to the party of Christ?
All of the earth, all of the world, all of creation magnifies Jesus the Savior, magnifies Christ. Something that you have been invited to do, that creation, the animals, they’ll praise Jesus, but something you’ve been invited to do is know Jesus and to become like Jesus and to imitate Jesus. And the Word of God will magnify Christ in your heart and in your life if you will submit to it, if you will remain under it, if you will remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose because you are in discipleship and you are discipling others and you are becoming like a little Christ.
Let’s pray together. Come on. Stand to your feet and we’ll pray. Lord, we give you glory and honor and we lift you high. And you’re worthy of praise today. We thank You for Your Word that’s always on time. We thank You that You’ve been doing new things since the beginning of time. We thank You that You are the Lord of the church and that no church, Gospel City Church, is not a product of man’s ingenuity but of your grace, Lord God.
Would your grace continue to be here and pour it out among us as we submit ourselves to the teaching of the Word of god? Would You make us into little Christs that we might magnify Jesus with all that we say and all that we do? In Your mighty name we pray, amen.
