Title: The Church that ImpactsThe
Text: Acts 11:19-30
Introduction
-Third largest city in the Roman Empire
-well known for its commerce and sin
-In spite of the difficult spiritual climate, unknown witnesses who preached the gospel in Antioch managed not only to win many converts, the church became a renowned church.
The Antioch Church:
-Impacted the city
-Thrived in a pagan society that is famous for it’s sin.
-An Anointed Church
-A Church that God’s favour is upon and God’s power is working
-A church that rocks the nations.
The Antioch Church gives a picture of hope for the church in this nation. It is possible for us to thrive in an age of sin and immorality.
Friends we must strived to become an Antioch.
How can we become the Antioch church? What are the marks of the Antioch church? Let us find out and let us answer the call today.
1. Fervent in Evangelism (Verse 20)
-Founded on Spirit inspired and Spirit empowered evangelism.
-The evangelists were normal lay people, unnamed and unknown.
-To become an Antioch church evangelism must be our priority, lost souls must be a burden that we carry all the time.
-When was the last time that a lost soul was a burden in your heart?
-The church was founded by fervent evangelism, and the church continued in fervent evangelism.
2. Strong in Word (v 24-26)
-The Antioch church had a strong bible-teaching program.
-A large number attended the teaching program.
-They have a hunger for the word.
-To be an Antioch, we must be strong in the word.
The word is a plumb line (Roman 12:1-2)
- Recent case of controversy, what does the word says. (1Tim 2:9)
Protects us from every wind of wrong doctrines
(1Tim 4:1,2Tim 4:1-3)
3. Growing in Christ likeness (v26)
-The believers were first called Christians in the Antioch church.
-The word Christians means followers of Christ or to be like Christ.
-I believe that it is because Christ is seen in their lives and that is why people around began to call them Christians.
-The Antioch church was growing in Christ likeness.
-To be an Antioch church we too must grow in Christ likeness.
-When other people see you, do they see Christ? Or do they see a vulgar, dirty minded, materialistic person that is totally different from Christ?
-From the day you believed till now have you grown in Christ-likeness?
4. Passionate in Prayer (13:1-2)
Prayer creates a climate where the Holy Spirit can move. When the church of God is passionate in prayer, it means that the church remains reliant upon the strength of God.
Every time in the book of Acts when the church prays something happened.
- Day of Pentecost
- The church prayed after Peter got persecuted.
- The church prayed for Peter.
- The Church prayed and Fast
Here the church in Antioch were worshipping and praying and all of a sudden God spoke. This resulted in the sending out of Paul and Barnabas as missionaries who impacted the Roman World with the gospel.
5. Committed in Missions (13:3-4)
The Antioch church is a missionary sending church. It is a great commission church that seeks to fulfill the great commission.
They sent out their best, the senior pastor and the great bible teacher Paul in obedience to the Holy Spirit. The church was committed to missions because they understand the commands of Christ and know that unless every tongue and tribe have heard the gospel Christ will not return.
Conclusion
The Antioch church impacts the world and shapes history. 2000 years later churches are still preaching about the Antioch church. Why? That is because the Holy Spirit has worked through the Antioch in such a phenomenal way. In many ways the Antioch Church was faced with obstacles, which the church is facing in this nation and it flourished and thrive. Oh to me this brings hope to us and the Spirit of God is saying if Antioch church can we can. We can rise up and shape the history of our nation.
