Let's Go To Antioch Series

Let’s Go to Antioch

Text: Acts 11:19-30

Introduction

1. Illustration: I heard a story about a guy who applied for a job as an usher at a theater in the mall. As a part of the interview process, the manager asked him, "What would you do in case a fire breaks out?" The young guy answered, "Don’t worry about me. I can get out fine." That’s exactly how many in today’s world respond to a lost and dying world around them. If you asked them "What would you do if Jesus came back tomorrow?" they would probably respond, "Oh, don’t worry about me. I’d be fine." But what is all too easy to forget is that you’re an usher! It isn’t enough just to get out yourself. You are responsible for helping others know the way.

2. Now I know what some of you are thinking right, “preacher, you sure do preach on evangelism a lot!” Well, there’s several reasons for that. First, I’ve been preaching though the Book of Acts, and the early church did a lot of evangelism. In fact, Acts tells us that they told people about Jesus everywhere they went. Remember, the title of this series is “Acts: The Blueprint for the New Testament Church.” If we want what they had, then we must do what they did.

3. Second, I talk about evangelism a lot because it is vital to our survival as a church. Let’s be honest, the core of our church is in their 70’s and 80’s, and they won’t be with us here on earth forever. Eventually we’re going to need to replace them, and the best way to do that is to tell people about what Jesus has done for them. Now, we’ve been doing a better job of that, but we still have work to do.

4. Let’s look at what the early church did. Read Acts 11:19-30.

Transition: If we are going to be a New Testament Church we need to say

I. Let’s Go (19-21).

A. Preaching About the Love of Jesus

1. The eventful explosion of the gospel with Peter at the house of Cornelius that we’ve talked about the last couple of weeks was a major turning point in the Book of Acts, but the Holy Spirit was also working in other places. In v. 19 Luke tells us, “Meanwhile, the believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen’s death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. They preached the word of God, but only to Jews.”

a. Luke here is referring to the events of Stephen’s martyrdom back in chapter 7 and the results of that event in chapter 8:4, “But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went.”

b. In doing so, Luke is signaling a new section in his account of the early church. The church is about to embark on a new adventure of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

c. However, there was some work that had to be done for this to happen. You will notice at the end of this verse that they were still stuck in the rut of only preaching to the Jews, and in doing so, they were excluding the rest of the world.

d. This was not God’s plan. He always intended to take the message of his love and forgiveness to all the world.

2. But the Holy Spirit was guiding some to take a risk of faith. In vv. 20-21 Luke tells us, “However, some of the believers who went to Antioch from Cyprus and Cyrene began preaching to the Gentiles about the Lord Jesus. 21 The power of the Lord was with them, and a large number of these Gentiles believed and turned to the Lord.”

a. Some believers who went to Antioch and had the courage to take the message about Jesus to the Gentiles.

b. One of the things that we should notice here is where they went. Antioch was a town of about 300,000 people, and it was the third largest city in the Roman empire, only surpassed by Rome and Alexandria.

c. What this teaches us is that they went where the people were. They took the message to the place it could have the biggest impact.

d. For years the church has done things to try and reach new people like having an event like a revival, concert, or VBS.

e. Now, for a time this worked, but that time has come and gone.

f. We’ve tried what I call “Field of Dreams” evangelism. In other words, if you build it, they will come! So, we thought well we’ll just spend money we don’t have to build bigger and better buildings, and people will just flock to us.