“Visible Grace”
Acts 11:19-30
October 28, 2007
Table Talk
What are some things that we can’t see, feel, hear, smell, or taste, and yet we know are real? How do we know these things are real?
Before we plunge headlong into today’s text, let’s take a few moments and set the
Context:
• The Lingering Question:
“Is this Gentile Thing Real?”
When we left off, the question for the church in Jerusalem was, “is it real?” “Is it true that Gentiles have come to faith in Christ without becoming Jews first?” Peter, testifying before the church leaders in Jerusalem, had answered in the affirmative, boldly proclaiming what he’d seen with his own two eyes. Here, Luke the author skillfully demonstrates the continued unfolding of the plan of God, as the gospel continues to go further out, radiating away from its center in Jerusalem out to the world. Here, we see, not just individual believers being born from above, but now, we see the first Gentile church coming into being. And it is the theme of the gospel advancing among Gentiles that occupies the rest of the book of Acts.
• The Dispersion Caused by Persecution
Verses 19 and 20 serve to set the stage for our main thought today. Remember that when Stephen was killed in Jerusalem for his faith in Christ, a great persecution of Christ-followers broke out there, and it got so bad that the Greek-speaking Jews, the Hellenists, who had come to live in Jerusalem, had to flee for their lives. Like throwing seeds to the wind, this had the effect of the sowing of the gospel all over the place among other Jews, and this is exactly what happened in our story today. On the screen is a map of some of the places that the gospel penetrated to that are mentioned in today’s text. Among the large Jewish population in Antioch, these displaced Hellenist Christians began to share the message of Jesus, and some Jews believed and accepted Jesus as the Messiah. But there were some others who undertook an experiment of sorts, reasoning that if Jesus Christ was the Messiah, and He could bring redemption and change to Jews, could He not also among Gentiles? And so they began to share with their Gentile friends the message of salvation in Christ. After all, even among these pagan Gentiles, there were many who sought some sort of salvation, and terms like “Lord” and “Savior” were common among them even before they ever heard that Jesus Christ of Nazareth might be the Lord and Savior of the world.
And it worked. A church was planted in Antioch, no small feat!
• Antioch
o 3rd-Largest City in the World
o 500,000 people
o “An Ancient Las Vegas”
Antioch had been founded 300+ years earlier, and by the time of Luke’s writing, was the third-largest city in the world, trailing only Rome and Alexandria, with a population of a half-million people. It had a sizable Jewish population, but was known, as many large cities in that day were and in this day are, for its loose morals. Ritual prostitution was rampant there, and every sort of vice could be found in abundance. The witness of the early church, then, would stand in stark contrast to the surrounding culture; hold that thought for later. It was a cosmopolitan city, a culture where, as one person put it, “they had their rough corners rubbed smooth, and traditional attitudes which were taken so seriously in a place like Jerusalem did not matter much.” As such, this was the ideal place to serve as the birthplace of Gentile Christianity, and Antioch remained a center for Christian faith for hundreds of years to come.
God was moving among the Gentiles, and because word of this got back to Jerusalem, the church there sent a man named Barnabas—actually, nicknamed “Barnabas”, because that name means “Son of encouragement’—to check out what was going on in Antioch, to report back to them on the status of this movement. Barnabas was a Jew, but one born on the island of Cyprus, outside the territory of Israel, and thus would have been a bit more naturally sympathetic and open to outsiders than, say, Jews who’d spent their whole lives in Palestine. The concern in Jerusalem was no doubt something like this: “things are getting out of control! What with the household of Cornelius converting, and now, Jews and Gentiles alike make up the church in Antioch; are we sure this is of God?” It sure burst their paradigms.
This fellow Barnabas was introduced to us in Acts 4. There, we learn that his real name was Joseph, but he’d already developed such a reputation as a man whose mission was to encourage others that they called him “son of encouragement”. He sold a field and brought the money that he made from it, laid it at the feet of the apostles, and it was distributed to any in the church who had need. Then we read of him again in Acts 9, right after Saul has his experience with Christ on the road to Damascus, the whole blinding-light thing, and it’s Barnabas who takes up the cause of Saul, this man who had done all he could to intimidate Christians, but who now was himself one. In short, Barnabas was a guy who had proven himself to be the perfect man for this job of checking out the new church in Antioch. And the description of him is three-fold, in verse 24: he was “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit, and full of faith”. In other words, he trusted God implicitly—and walking by faith requires venturing out on new ground sometimes, such as he was doing here—he was controlled by the Holy Spirit of God, such that he yielded himself to God to do God’s bidding, and he demonstrated God’s control through a life that, when looked at by others, they saw his good works and glorified God. Barnabas was the right man for this job!
And the Bible says that when Barnabas got there, he “saw the grace of God.” What an amazing thing! If you can’t feel it, see it, hear it, taste it, or smell it, how do you know it’s real?
How did Barnabas “see the grace of God”?
I. Courage that led to Conversions :21
This was something on an entirely new scale. An Ethiopian man riding in his chariot had come to faith as Philip proclaimed the gospel; a centurion named Cornelius and all his household had come to faith as Peter had shared Christ. But here, a great number of people had converted to become followers of Jesus, not as an apostle had shared with them, but as ordinary, nameless folks had told the Christ-story. Some of them may have already belonged to a class we know as the “God-fearers”, people who were familiar with and followed the Jewish law, but we’re not sure. Nonetheless, Barnabas was able to see the amazing results of the grace of God: changed lives! That’s the bottom line, I’d remind you again: as we say, “the story will be told in the lives that are changed”.
“Believed/turned” – This is the gospel equation for all time; faith and repentance, belief and turning. As the Spirit of God brings conviction of my sin against a holy God, as He works in my heart, I believe that Christ is God’s Son, crucified for me in my place and risen from the grave. I acknowledge that I stand condemned completely before the bar of justice of a holy God, that there is nothing I can possibly do to atone for my sin and be right in God’s sight. Accordingly, I turn from any attempt to achieve my own salvation, fall humbly upon God’s grace and mercy, and turn from my sin to His salvation. This happened then, and the lives of many were changed, Jews and Gentiles alike; some believe that Luke himself, the writer of Acts, was among those who were born of God at this time; tradition suggests that he was a native of Antioch, though we aren’t certain of that. And they lived out their commitments to Christ in the context of being together in one body, the local church in Antioch. Side-by-side they worshipped God, law-keeping Jews and those who were not Jews. As I’ve noted previously, this isn’t particularly exceptional to us, from our vantage point, but to bridge the gap between Jews and non-Jews in that day was nothing short of revolutionary. People were being converted, and lives were being changed.
II. Faithfulness that led to Purpose :23
He saw that they were faithful to the Lord, and he urged them to continue that way, to continue to make their relationship with Christ to be the very wellspring from which their lives flowed, to continue to make Jesus the point and purpose of their existence. This wouldn’t be something new to them; he sensed it already operating among them, but he wanted to urge them to continue in that vein. “Steadfast purpose”, complete commitment is in view.
III. Teachability that led to Growth :25, 26
Notice what Barnabas did: he first got Saul—the same guy that he’d vouched for before the elders in Jerusalem, this guy who’d given his life over to persecuting the church—and he brought him to Antioch to be a teacher and preacher to these new believers there. It might not have been easy to find Saul; it is likely that he was disowned in his native hometown of Tarsus because of his faith in Christ, and very possibly suffered some because of it; we read of this in II Corinthians 11-12. But Saul was just the man for the job; Barnabas went looking and found him, bringing him back to teach the new disciples there in Antioch. Question: who learned the most through that experience? Answer: good question! It was win-win!
Teachability is high on my list of necessary character attributes for followers of Christ. Since that word “teachability” creates red squiggly lines in my MSWord spell-check, I’d imagine that it’s not a word you can find in the dictionary, but what I’m talking about is a teachable spirit, a person who has the humility to take the position of a learner. This is a person who is willing to get past the pretense and nonsense of believing that he’s got it all figured out. This is what the Antioch believers were; they humbled themselves and received the teaching given them about Christ.
IV. Character that led to Reputation :26
The name of Jesus was so much on the lips of these new disciples that the people of Antioch took to calling them “little Christs” or “Jesus people”. “Who are those people”, came the question, and the reply, “oh, those are those Jesus people”. Their identity was wrapped up in Jesus. They didn’t give themselves that name; it was a name conferred on them by non-believers! Let that sink in…it’s one thing to say, with your own lips, “I’m a Christian” or “I’m a Christ-follower”, but it’s quite another for other people to see you and hear you and say, “it’s obvious that this fellow belongs to Jesus”. It was probably used as a term of derision, not as a compliment. But it managed to stick, and to serve as a coalescing term to bring together even further, as a group with a distinct identity, the church; these weren’t merely people following a sect within Judaism, but were a separate group altogether.
Why was Christ so much on their lips? Because Christ had been pre-eminent in the teaching they had heard from Saul and Barnabas, undoubtedly. It’s all about Jesus, we must remind ourselves again and again. We live in an age of man-centered preaching, moralisms masquerading as the message, gimmicks as the gospel, psychology as salvation, and self-help as sanctification. Where Jesus is not maximized, the gospel is not being preached, folks, and Jesus, His life and sacrificial death, His resurrection and return, His beauty and holiness; these were the teachings that Saul and Barnabas instilled in these new believers, so much so that that’s what came out of their lives: Jesus. And people said, “there just little Jesuses over there”. Eventually, the church began to embrace this title; it became the identity of believers, transcending ethnicity or nationality, transcending the Jew/Gentile divide that had been a wedge between people for centuries—all because of Jesus. Christians…we could be called worse!
V. Compassion that led to Generosity
:27-30
Verse 27 tells us of people who had the gift of prophecy, who came from Jerusalem to Antioch to tell forth the word of the Lord. These were people who had a direct and immediate message from God, but unlike those who spoke in unknown tongues, these people spoke in their own native languages and told forth God’s truth. Verse 28 says that one of these men of God was a man named Agabus, whose prophecy involved a coming famine (caused by drought conditions, with which we can identify!) that would sweep all over the known world. And sure enough, history tells us that a series of bad harvests produced just this effect, a famine that hit particularly hard in Judaea, where the mother church was located in Jerusalem. How did these new believers at Antioch respond? How was Barnabas able to see the visible grace of God in operation?
Want to know the depth of your commitment to Jesus? Want to see it for what it really is, and not what you pretend it to be, or hope it to be, or portray it to be to others? Take a good, hard, honest look at what you do with your money. What you do with your money says more about your relationship to God than most anything else. Why? Because it costs something to give. It costs something to manage your money in such a way that you say “no” to crippling debt, in order to honor God with your money. It costs something to do without the stuff that the world says you’ve got to have to be happy, and we all know that the things in life that make us happy are money and the things we can buy with money, right? Ahem…
How do we manage our financial resources as followers of Jesus? The answer to this question will tell a whole lot about our walk with God. Yes, it has to do with our generosity to God’s work; that’s a key part of it, but the picture is bigger: the picture is financial stewardship, what I do with my money beyond just what I give to God’s work. The church at Antioch heard that there was a need, and out of compassion and love for Jesus, responded in a tremendous fashion. We have a more full-orbed grasp of what the Bible teaches about money.
Principles of Financial Stewardship
• Seek God’s Kingdom first, because you cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24, 33).
• Your money and your stuff aren’t your money and your stuff (Psalm 24:1).
• You are a trustee of your money and your stuff (Luke 16:1-11).
• As a trustee of your money and your stuff, you are accountable to God (Luke 16:12).
• Seeking treasure here is futile; seeking eternal treasure pleases God (Matthew 6:19-21), and where your treasure is, your heart is.
• Act with financial integrity at all times:
o Work if you expect to eat (II Thessalonians 3:10).
o Avoid debt to the degree possible (Proverbs 22:7).
o Give generously & cheerfully (II Corinthians 9:6-15), recognizing that you are a receiver first.
There are tremendous examples in the book of Acts which we can and should follow, and what we have here in this church at Antioch is a series of things that we should seek to emulate as we follow Christ. I note three such examples as we finish:
• “The necessity of the anonymous” – Big shots need not apply; superheroes aren’t necessary; celebrities aren’t required. It was just some anonymous Christ-followers who took the gospel message to the people in Antioch.
• The importance of encouragers – Barnabas
o Rejoiced when he saw the grace of God – were there other things to see? Sure…undoubtedly, there were things going on in this church’s youthful exuberance that might have made him wonder. While there were now people called “Christians” in Antioch, there was undoubtedly still plenty of Antioch in these Christians. But his focus was on the clear evidence that God’s hand of grace was on this place and these folks.
o Encouraged them to perseverance. “You’ve made a great start; super. There’s more!”
o “Faith”, the “fullness of the Holy Spirit”; moral “goodness” are characteristics of the kind of people who make for good encouragers.
o He sought help from Saul, a man whose gifts outshone his own, because his concern wasn’t the glory or praise, but the wellbeing of the Antioch church.
• The reality of changed lives – these people in Antioch didn’t merely talk a good game or look the part (whatever that would have meant in that culture, but we know what it means today); they lived out their faith in lives that were being radically transformed by the gospel. As must we!
Table Talk
We covered a lot of ground today. Instead of a particular question, just share with others what you think God might be saying to you (and to us!) today.
