1. The impact of many – vs. 19
2. The impact of some – vs. 20-21
3. The impact of others – vs. 22-24
4. The impact of one – vs. 25-26
ACTS 11:19-26
Who has ever heard the name, Edward D. Kimball? Doesn’t ring a bell? Well, let me tell you about him. Many years ago, Mr. Kimball was a Sunday School teacher at Mount Vernon Congregational Church in Chicago. It was a tiny little church, and Mr. Kimball’s class consisted of just a handful of teenage boys. One Sunday morning, a new boy came to class who had been attending church by himself for a few weeks. The boy was unchurched and couldn’t even find the Gospel of John in the Bible Mr. Kimball gave him. After the boy had been to Sunday School for a few weeks, Mr. Kimball decided to visit him and talk to him about salvation. The boy worked in a shoe store, and Mr. Kimball was nervous about witnessing to him. He paced back and forth in front of the store several times before he worked up the courage to walk in. Finally, he stormed in, put his arm on the boy’s shoulder and nervously gave him the Gospel. Right there, in the back of that shoe store in Chicago, Dwight L. Moody, one of the greatest evangelists the world has ever known, gave his life to Christ. Through Moody’s ministry, hundreds of thousands of people have come to know Jesus. A few generations later, one of those people was Billy Graham. If you haven’t heard of Dwight L. Moody, you certainly have heard of Billy Graham. What an impact those two men have had for Christ! But if you think about it, what an impact Edward D. Kimball had for Christ. This morning I want each of us to consider the impact we are making for Christ and determine in our hearts to increase our impact. In order to do that, we’re going to look at the impact of four levels of commitment to spreading the gospel that can be seen in the passage we just read. The first level of commitment we can see is the impact of many.
ACTS 11:19
The impact of many. Remember back in Acts 6, Stephen was chosen as one of the first deacons. Well, he didn’t last long. Because later in that same chapter, he was arrested by the Jews and in chapter 7, he was killed by stoning. He was the first Christian martyr. Stephen’s stoning marked the start of a great persecution of Christians in Jerusalem. Now they weren’t being persecuted by the Romans yet—that would come later. Now they were being persecuted by the Jews. And when they were persecuted, they scattered. Our passage says they fled to the cities of Phenice, Cyprus, and Anitoch. Those were cities that were known for their large Jewish populations. So they fled to places where there were people who were like them. They looked like them. They talked like them. They ate the same foods they did. They fled to places that were comfortable. And when they got there, they did what they were supposed to do. They preached the Gospel. But look who they preached it to. They preached to none but unto the Jews only. They preached only to those who they were comfortable being around. Those who looked like them and talked like them and acted like them. Isn’t that what we do so often? We might do what we’re supposed to and witness to folks, but who are we witnessing to? Are we witnessing to the easy ones? The ones who agree with us on most issues? The ones who look like us and talk like us and act like us? Or are we going beyond that? These folks didn’t. They stayed with what was comfortable to them. So, what was the result? What was the impact of their witnessing? Look real hard in verse 19 for the impact. Do you see it? You don’t. You don’t see the impact, because the Bible doesn’t mention any. The impact of their staying in there comfort zone and only witnessing to those who were just like them was minimal at best. Here’s the reality. Statistics report that in 2005, 40% of Americans could be considered born-again Christians. Of those 40%, less than half even bothered to invite even one person to church with them in a whole year. That means that the vast majority of born-again Christians in America have about as much impact as the Christians in verse 19. Why? Because they don’t want to do what makes them uncomfortable. They don’t want to step out of their comfort zone. Many of our churches today have become self-contained clubs where we have enough programs that if we’re lucky we won’t ever have to come into contact with the lost. That’s wrong. If we do that, when future generations tell of us, it’ll look like verse 19. A lot of work, but impact that’s so insignificant it’s not even worth mentioning. But thank God there were some that stepped out. There were some who weren’t content with being comfortable. Those were the people who made the second level of commitment. The second level of commitment is the impact of some.
ACTS 11:20-21
The impact of some. Our passage says that these some were men of Cyprus and Cyrene. That’s how they’re identified, but they were Jews just like all the others in verse 19. They had fled from the Jerusalem church just like the others. The only difference is that they weren’t originally from Jerusalem. They were originally from places called Cyprus and Cyrene. And since they were from there, they probably spoke Greek as their native language. Who knows, they might have been some of the 3000 that were saved when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost back in Acts 2. Whatever the case, these men were Jews who had been raised to hate Gentiles just as much as all the other Jews. Just because they spoke Greek didn’t change that. But what does verse 20 say they did? It says that when they got to Antioch, they didn’t preach to the Jews. They preached to the Grecians—the Greeks—the Gentiles. Talk about stepping out of your comfort zone! The Jews were raised from birth to have nothing to do with Gentiles. They even referred to Gentiles as dogs. Not dogs like we think of dogs. We think of dogs as man’s best friend. Jews thought dogs and pigs were an abomination. As a matter of fact, they only called two types of people dogs—Gentiles and homosexual male prostitutes. That’s how low they viewed Gentiles. But what did these few Jewish Christians do? They went out and preached the Gospel to those dogs. They stepped out of their comfort zone and preached the Lord Jesus to the Gentiles. How could they possibly do that? Because they no longer saw them as Gentile dogs. They began to see them as lost sinners in need of a Savior—just like they had been before Jesus saved them. And what happened when they did that? What was the impact when they emptied themselves and stepped out of their comfort zones to preach the Gospel to people who weren’t like them? Verse 21 says that the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. What an impact! Wouldn’t it be awesome to hear of us that the hand of the Lord was with us and as a result of our witness, a great number believed and turned to the Lord? Don’t you want to see that? Don’t you long to hear that? If you do, you’ll have to get out of your comfort zone. You’ll have to find ways to meet people who aren’t like you. You’ll have to use the gifts and the resources God has given you to engage all types of people with the Gospel. God gives you contact with all kinds of people. He does that for a reason. Now I’m not saying that we have to always share the Gospel with complete strangers. I don’t know how effective that really is. What I am saying is that we can develop relationships with people. And through those relationships, we can preach the Lord Jesus Christ to them. See, the Jews from Cyprus and Cyrene used the fact that they spoke Greek as a way to preach to the Greeks. The language was a relational link that allowed them to spread the Gospel. We need to work to build relational links with those around us. Whether it’s sports, or hobbies, or deer hunting, or quilting. Build those relational links as ways to witness to those who are different than you are. If we do, maybe future generations can look back at this time and say that the hand of the Lord was with us and a great number believed. But that is a local impact. Don’t get me wrong, we want a local impact. But is that all we want? Shouldn’t we want more? Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He told His disciples that they were to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Staying in our comfort zone and witnessing to those who are like us might impact our Jerusalem. Getting out of our comfort zone and witnessing to those who are different than us will do a very good job impacting our Judea. But what about our Samaria? What about reaching areas outside of those God brings in our lives? How do we impact them? We impact them with the third level of commitment. The third level of commitment is the impact of others.
ACTS 11:22-24
The impact of others. Those men from Cyprus and Cyrene really got things stirred up in Antioch. They got things stirred up and God began to move and lots of people got saved. Well, when that happened, word got back to the parent church back in Jerusalem. And when they heard what was going on, what did they do? Did they get jealous? Did they bad-mouth the folks up in Antioch for preaching to the Gentiles? No—they sent help. They sent one of my favorite characters of the Bible—Barnabas. Everywhere that you see Barnabas, he’s encouraging someone. And that’s what he did when he got to Antioch. He looked around to make sure the work was of God. And when he saw that the grace of God was evident, he praised God with them. And he exhorted them—he encouraged them in their work. You know, I’m happy to be a Southern Baptist this morning. That may sound funny, but the reason I’m happy to be a Southern Baptist is because we cooperate with other churches to do things that we could never do by ourselves. We’re part of a local association, a state association, and a national convention that cooperates at all levels. Sometimes we think it’s all about the Cooperative Program and money, but it’s so much more than that. It’s about our church working with all of the other churches in our area. It’s about sending a Barnabas to a sister church when they need some encouragement. It’s not about competition. It’s not about growing a kingdom here at this church. It’s about cooperating to grow God’s Kingdom. And out of the cooperation between the Jerusalem church and the church at Antioch, we see the impact in verse 24: “much people was added unto the Lord.” Don’t you want to see that? I am firmly convinced that our church can make an impact for Christ in this area. But if we want to make an impact on Southern West Virginia, we need some help. That’s why we cooperate. We cooperate so, like the church at Antioch, we can see many people saved. So we can reach our Samaria. We will reach our Jerusalem. We can reach our Judea. We must cooperate to reach our Samaria. But remember that back in Acts 1:8, Jesus gave us one more area to impact—the uttermost parts of the earth. How are we going to do that? We impact them with the fourth level of commitment. The forth level of commitment is the impact of one.
ACTS 11:25-26
The impact of one. Can one person impact the world for Christ? Paul did. Paul who had been a murderer. Paul who had dedicated his life to destroying the followers of Jesus Christ. Paul who watched as they stoned Stephen. Paul who was responsible for the persecution that drove the Jewish Christians out of Jerusalem in the first place. Paul who Jesus stopped in his tracks on the Damascus road. Paul who Jesus radically saved. Paul who wrote the majority of the New Testament. Paul, who through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote these words: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Paul impacted the world for Christ. And the same Jesus that saved Paul saved me. And saved you if you’re a Christian today. And will save you if you’re not. I don’t know what the future holds for anyone in this room this morning. Just like Edward D. Kimball didn’t know what the future held for that boy sitting in his Sunday School class who couldn’t even find the Book of John in his borrowed Bible. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future. And I know He has the power to enable anyone in this room to impact the world for Christ if you’ll let Him. His plan for you might be to be as big as Dwight L. Moody. I don’t know, it could be. Or it could be as small as Edward D. Kimball. Don’t forget, God sent Barnabas to go get Paul. So my question for you this morning is, what impact are you making for Christ? Do you have the impact of the many? The many who only go to the ones they are comfortable with? Only witness in non-threatening, comfortable, convenient situations? Or do you have the impact of the some? The some who aren’t afraid to step out of their comfort zone. The ones who build relationships with the lost in order to win them to Christ. Do you have the impact of the others? Do you cooperate in your giving like you should? Do you cooperate in your prayer support for other churches? Do you cooperate by encouraging other churches? Finally, do you have the impact of the one? Are you faithful in the area that God has called you? Whether God calls you to be a Paul or He calls you to be a Barnabas. Whether He calls you to be a Kimball or a Moody. God is calling. Answer His call this morning.
