UNSTOPPABLE
Reaching Our World
July 27
The Church that Captures the Heart of the Community
Welcoming
Worshiping
Growing
Serving
Reaching
How would you answer this phrase, "I like church, but...?" Over time, what have been those "buts" in your life? When I was young, for me it was that the service was boring. I liked church, but it was boring. It was too quiet–you could hear a pin drop. As I grew up, I attended other churches and other "buts" entered my mind. "I like church, BUT I find some churches irrelevant." Or, "I like church, BUT people lack passion for God and for making his word known to others." In other churches, I’ve discovered that the issue was money. In others, they had turned inward and focused on themselves too much. Scripture wasn’t central to the life of the church. In other churches, I’ve discovered that Christian people are too critical and are very unloving.
What has been your experience. You like church and you love the Lord, BUT..." What are some of those "buts"? For the last several weeks we’ve been looking at the the first four core values of Meridian Christian Church - Welcoming; Worshiping; Growing; and Serving. This Sunday we’ll look at the last core value - Reaching.
The church in Antioch was a church that captured the heart of the community. They did so because of two important characteristics seen in Acts 11:19-30.
This morning, we will look at a church that I think really captured God’s heart because they captured the heart of their community–the church of Antioch. This is found in Acts 11: 19-30. Historically, Antioch was the third largest city in the known world at that time. It was extremely secular, but it was also extremely religious. They had a lot of churches. There was the church of men, a Greek deity, the church of Astart, the church of Artemis. A lot of people were going to a lot of churches. The culture, however, was very immoral and very worldly. In spite of a missionary’s worst nightmare going to a foreign culture that was extremely anti-God, within 40 years the Christian church became the dominant force in the culture, so much so that the center of Christianity moved from Jerusalem to Antioch. How is that possible? How could they capture the heart of the community like that? It would be like Meridian Christian converting the entire city of Lansing within 40 years, so much so that it becomes the dominant force in the society and the city.
The Church Talked to Everyone about the Good News
“19 Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. 20 Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.”
Acts 11:19-20
What did this church do to capture people’s hearts and attention? The first thing they did was that they could not keep their mouths shut about this man Jesus. In fact, the word “Christian” was coined at Antioch because these people could not keep quiet about this “Christos.” In vs. 19, it says that these people came from Jerusalem which was under severe persecution. They lost everything. They had to move from their homes because of their beliefs and their profession in Jesus Christ. They lost their jobs and incomes, they had to leave their friends and the community of which they had been a part for such a long time. Under that intense pressure, you would think that they would learn to shut their mouths, that they would be afraid to tell other people what God had done for them. Yet, they didn’t. They couldn’t keep quiet.
In Marquette many years ago I spoke to a man and his wife about a personal relationship with Jesus. Their names were Ed and Barb Gosselin. They had been raised in church and even as adults had gone to church – but Jesus was not their personal savior. We talked about Jesus and the good news and it was as if I had turned on a flood light. All of the years of dead religion was cleared away in the face of Jesus. Barb was so excited that she almost vibrated off of the sofa. As we talked over a couple of weeks I saw her emotions change and mix. She moved from excitement to one of confusion tinged with anger. “Why didn’t someone tell me about this before! I’ve been going to church all my life and all they ever wanted me to do was to sit in a pew and give money. No one ever told me about the good news of Jesus. I had to calm her down on more than one occasion! Last fall Donna and I went back to the Lake Superior Christian Church for the 30th anniversary and we saw Barb Gosselin and her daughter. Ed passed on a few years back. It was so wonderful to see how Jesus had grown and strengthened this lady into one of his mature and faithful followers.
This challenges me because when I talk about God to other people, they might roll their eyes at me, they might tell me they don’t want to talk about it, but I know that they need to hear about the good news of Jesus. So many people have confused religion and churchianity with the real good news of Jesus and that he died and was resurrected so that I could be part of his church. It’s personal and it’s real.
I wonder sometimes whether the myths in our heads are really true. The myths in our culture are that people don’t really want to hear about Christianity. People are satisfied with their lives. They have everything and they don’t need the Lord in their lives. They have another religion, and they don’t need us to convert them.
Those words in our heads are a lie. When I look at the church in Antioch, they always professed Jesus Christ. Throughout the history of the church, people have discovered that they need him. People have listened and they will listen. People have responded and they will respond. They responded in Antioch in great numbers, and every time the church caught fire and talked about their faith, people began to listen.
I think the key for us to capture our community is simply to say that the myths in our heads are a lie because they are. People cannot respond unless we talk about our faith with others.
And The church in Antioch didn’t let a little thing like persecution stop them from talking about Jesus!
Look… Let’s be honest. I haven’t been forced out of my home and lost my possessions. Yet, so often, I keep quiet about my faith. Why am I so afraid to tell people what God has done for me when it doesn’t cost me anything. For those for whom it cost everything, they still couldn’t keep quiet about him. That’s a challenge.
Why couldn’t these people be quiet about who Jesus was in spite of the persecution? The answer is that the message of Jesus Christ is fantastic news. Do you believe that?
One thing I discovered over time is that the longer that we are Christians, the more out of touch we are with how good the good news really is. The people who know that best are people who live without God in their lives, the most secular people–they are the ones who tend to be the most turned on. Do you know people like that? Maybe you came from a completely secular family and you heard the message and God touched your heart and changed you.
Some of these people are nuts and a little obnoxious because they realize what God has done for them. It’s like a light has come on, and they act as though the faith began with them. They look at us and ask why we are not more passionate about our faith. They challenge us because they have experienced what life is without God, and then when they experience God they know there is a difference.
Sometimes we become too tame. The phrase, “Familiarity breeds contempt” is so often right. In fact, you see this in Antioch. Who are the most responsive and the most passionate in the faith? It was not the religious Jews. In fact, they became a real obstacle to the Christian faith. They were not far from the light of God, and so they never really experienced what separation from God is like. You see this in the disciples who were leading the church at that time.
These Christian people are sharing the good news, not with religious people, but with Gentiles, people who had never heard this before, people who were very secular. The Christians in Jerusalem sent Barnabas down to Antioch to find out what the Christians there were doing.
We need to be in the middle of the community sharing the good news of Jesus! As a church, we are spending a lot of money to build a building. It’s not for us! It’s for them!
Another observation about this text is who shared the faith? It wasn’t the professional evangelists. It was simple, average Christians who shared in their workplaces and in their lives about what God had done for them, and people listened. They went outside the four walls of the church and talked not to religious Jews, but to irreligious people, people who were apart from God. That’s our challenge. If we want to capture the heart of the community, we need the conviction that these people had. That conviction is that people need Jesus Christ.
From the outside, I’m sure we would have concluded that these people had every material desire met. They had every sensual desire met. They had every religious desire met, and yet they were empty because they did not know Jesus Christ. Do we have the conviction and belief that without Jesus Christ, nothing satisfies?
I find it funny that as Christians we can get all excited about a new restaurant. We can tell our friends and neighbors to eat at this wonderful bistro. We get excited about a movie or a sports team. How is it that we can’t talk about our great Savior, a wonderful God? A restaurant will only satisfy you for about three hours. It will produce a good meal, but you will get hungry again. Jesus Christ will satisfy you for eternity. Why aren’t we bragging about him?
Look across the road. People are passionate about all kinds of stuff. The hardware store across the road has a huge sign that says “Come in and buy hammers.” They are passionate about a cars. “Come in and buy a new car – it will satisfy your life.” McDonalds sells us hamburgers as if they are going to fulfill the deepest needs of your soul. They are so excited about French Fries that buy advertising on big billboards.
Yet, we have the good news of Jesus Christ, the most fantastic news of all, and what do we do? We hide it and apologize if we speak openly about our faith. There is something majorly wrong with that. Hamburgers get more attention and promotion than Jesus Christ and his work.
Now we need to be wise about how we reach out and share the good news.
Helping People is our method…
Short term events – Christmas Breakfast
Long term ministry
Ministry to children – latchkey and tutoring and youth ministry.
Ministry to adults through sports – Community Volleyball League
Extreme Makeover’s - work with vendors to fix up a place.
Why? So we can tell them about Jesus.
The Lord’s Hand was with Them
21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
Acts 11:19-21
God’s Grace was Evident in Their Grace
Have you ever experienced grace from a stranger? Maybe you were driving down the road and your tire went flat. Someone who didn’t know you helped you fix it, and you don’t know who they were. Have you ever experienced unmerited favor, a good deed done by a stranger only because they loved people.
God’s presence was evident in their lives
It was the hand of God – not the arm of man
We do our very best before God and he completes our best effort with his power and we become UNSTOPPABLE.
A preacher in California told how they were involved in an effort to build that the town counsel turned down. After the meeting a woman came up and said, How can you be so calm? We just turned you down. He said, you don’t understand. We think that God is using you to move us in a better direction. And he did!
We were going to build on Willoughby Road and Alaiedon Township wouldn’t even take our application. They turned us down before we asked. I have to admit. I was upset and we fought it for a couple of years… but God was moving us in a different… and better direction.
By his hand we found and began building a ministry center that will allow us to reach out to this community in a whole new way.
Helping People Find The Way Home
25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
Acts 11:25
Antioch did two things. They talked about Jesus – and they evidenced the gracious hand of God in their live. They gave God the glory and honor. It’s wasn’t about them – it was about Him.
They captured the heart of the city. Let’s Pray that we would capture the heart of our community.
