Part I
Acts 11:19-26
Purpose: To stir up God’s people to be more aggressive in spreading the gospel.
INTRODUCTION: Wouldn’t you love to see in our neighborhood what happened in our text to city of Antioch? Acts 11:21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. (NAU) What can we do in order to see more of God’s blessing in our country? We know that just saying “God Bless America” is not going to do it.
James Dobson recently wrote about the difference between the current generation and the WW II generation of fifty years ago, “Commitment, dedication, and patriotism have given place to sensuality, hedonism, and selfishness. If the decade of the ’40s was characterized by commitment and sacrifice, the ’70s were driven by the ‘me’ generation. And so it has continued to the present day. Who would have believed that by 1996, for example, lawmakers in 22 states would be trying to decide whether or not to legalize marriages between two or more men, or two or more women? Who would have expected 49 state governments to be promoting neighborhood casinos and lotteries to encourage gambling? Who would have thought that federal government would have spent nearly $3 billion promoting safe sex nonsense among teenagers? Yes, we’ve drifted far afield from the world our forebears knew in 1946.
“Now we’re paying dearly for that shift away from traditional values. Sexually transmitted diseases are rampant, 30 million babies have been aborted, marriages are in shambles, unsupervised children roam our city streets, gambling is a national epidemic, and violent gangs are spreading in rural communities. All of us can see that something has gone terribly wrong.” [1]
Not only is the world in a mess, we don’t have to look far to see that Juniata is in a mess too. This can be discouraging because it is humanly impossible for even one person to change himself from a sinner to a follower of Christ, let alone for large groups of people to do it. How can we have an influence for good on a neighborhood that is so wicked?
The way back for America and for Juniata is illustrated in the story about a mother who was sharing an afternoon with her six year old son. It took place one spring day as the two of them were out in the garden. The mother was absorbed in her work of weeding the garden while the little boy was exploring the different plants that were growing everywhere. All at once he picked a daffodil bud, sat down on the ground, and studied it. Then with his two little hands he tried to force it open into full blossom. Frustrated, he cried out, “Mommy, why is it that when I try to open the bud, it just falls to pieces and dies? How does God open it into a beautiful flower?” And before his mother could give an answer, he made his own discovery and said, “Ah Ha! Oh, I know! God always works from the inside.” [2]
We need to understand that God work His beauty from the inside out. God doesn’t work just because we put together a wonderful church program or a large gathering of believers. We must begin by understanding what God’s methods are.
I. Our Method: a Biblical Vision of God
You must see a target before you can aim for it. In order for us to see what God wants us to do, we must understand four things.
A. We must long for God’s glory
We can easily see that the world around us is in a mess, but we must take the time to observe that today’s Christian church is a laughing stock to the rest of the world. We have tried to adopt the world’s music, the world’s entertainment, and the world’s view of success. So, now the world sees little difference between them and the church.
We will never see God work though us until we see the need for God to work through us. Listen to this description of the Jewish nation in Psalm 80 and think about how it mirrors the church in our day. Psalm 80:4–7 “O LORD God of hosts, How long will You be angry with the prayer of Your people? You have fed them with the bread of tears, and You have made them to drink tears in large measure. You make us an object of contention to our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves. O God of hosts, restore us and cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved. ”
Psalm 80:14–19 O God of hosts, turn again now, we beseech You; Look down from heaven and see, and take care of this vine, Even the shoot [or “root”] which Your right hand has planted, And on the son[or “branch”] whom You have strengthened for Yourself. It is burned with fire, it is cut down; they perish at the rebuke of Your countenance. Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself. Then we shall not turn back from You; Revive us, and we will call upon Your name. O LORD God of hosts, restore us; Cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved. (NAU)
B. We must only look to God’s Word
Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law.” (NAU) We need to constantly hear, “Thus saith the Lord.”
Everything the church needs to know is in the Bible. The Bible explains HOW to spread the message, and the Bible tells us WHAT the message is. 2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Our message must be all about the righteousness of God.
C. We must reject man’s methods
Psalm 1:1-3 “1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” (NAU)
2 Corinthians 10:3–5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, (NAU)
We must be willing to change anything in our lives that hinders our effectiveness to share the Gospel.
D. We must rely on God’s power
We need to be careful that our focus is not negative, e.g. our world is coming apart, everything is rotten, and there is no hope. The negative question in the first three verses of Psalm 2 is answered the next three verses: Psalm 2:1–31 Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!” (NAU)
Psalm 2:4–6 He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, “But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.” (NAU)
If we doubt what God can or will do to spread His Gospel through us, then we will not have the boldness to share the Gospel. We need a genuine enthusiasm that God’s kingdom will increase and grow. That’s why we must be praying “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
Caleb is a good example. “CALEB was a man committed to victory. Joshua and Caleb also saw the fortified cities in the land, but they reacted in faith rather than fear. They advised Moses and Aaron and the Israelites to attack Canaan immediately
How can we be like Caleb? It takes PERSISTENCE! After the Jews entered the promised land Caleb stood up and said in Joshua 14:7–9, 12-14: “I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear; but I followed the LORD my God fully. So Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden will be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God fully’ [12] ‘Now then, give me this hill country about which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the LORD will be with me, and I will drive them out as the LORD has spoken.’ So Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. Therefore, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite until this day, because he followed the LORD God of Israel fully.”
Before Jesus gave us our marching orders He assured us that a lack of power was NOT going to be a problem. “Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations… ” (Matthew 28:18–19). Acts 1:8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” (NAU)
If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ then you have been called to make other disciples of Jesus Christ. This may sound hard or scary, but we should never forget WHO is asking us to spread the Gospel.
This was made clear to Daniel in Daniel 7:13–14: “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.”
II. Our Mission: Gospel Growth not Church Growth
We need to understand two basic things before we are likely to see the Gospel grow into the lives of those around us. But, before we look at those two things we must be willing to reject our tendency to think that what we need is money, power, influence, and/or large numbers of people.
Paul warned us (as we just saw) in 2 Corinthians 10:4, “the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses” (NAU) Paul also made this point in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (NAU)
We are given the responsibility of spreading the Gospel. Jesus has already promised to fortify His church. “I also say to you that you are Peter, [a pebble] and upon this rock [that Jesus is the Messiah] I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. " (Matthew 16:18).
A. We need God’s priorities to guide us
Our personal walk is more important than our religious work! Proverbs 16:32 He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city. (NAU)
Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel. (NAU) He PURPOSED, PONDERED, PRACTICED, and then PROPAGATED.
1. It begins with the heart
We need to focus on the Bible so much that even our random thoughts are pleasing to God. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).
God sent a great revival to Antioch and lot of it had to do with Barnabus because Acts 11:24 says: he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord. (NAU)
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. 25 Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; 27 but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. (NAU)
If God’s priorities are in our heart then serving God will be a natural outpouring of our lives.
“Let’s imagine that you want to learn to dance. Being the rational, cerebral person you are, you go to a bookstore and buy a book on dancing.
“You take the book home and get to work. You do everything it says. The book says sway; you sway. The book says shuffle; you shuffle. The book says spin; you spin.
“Finally, you think you’ve got it, and you invite your wife to come in and watch. You hold the book open and follow the instructions step by step.
“You continue to read, then dance, read, then dance, until the dance is completed. You plop exhausted on the couch, look at your wife, and proclaim, "I executed it perfectly."
‘You executed it, all right,’ she sighs. ‘You killed it.’
‘What?’
‘You forgot the most important part. Where is the music?’ Music?
“We Christians are prone to follow the book while ignoring the music. We master the doctrine, outline the chapters, memorize the dispensations, debate the rules, and stiffly step down the dance floor of life with no music in our hearts. We measure each step, calibrate each turn, and flop into bed each night exhausted from another day of dancing by the book.
Dancing with no music is tough stuff.” [4]
Proverbs 4:23 Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. (NAU)
2. It is built in the home
The home is supposed to be an illustration of what God’s love really is. Ephesians 5:28-32 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. (NAU)
This is why a godly home is a basic NT qualification for leadership. 1 Timothy 3:2-5 2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. 4 He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity 5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?), (NAU)
Even our prayer life depends upon our home life. 1 Peter 3:7 You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. (NAU)
CONCLUSION: Is your heart and your home right? How do you treat the people you live with? We will never be effective serving the Lord if we act one way at church and another way at home.
Is there something you’re doing at home that needs to change? Are you actively involved in sharing the Gospel with someone else?
You must get involved to have an impact. No one is impressed with the won-lost record of the referee.
John H. Holcomb
We should learn to bless God before we say “God Bless America.” [5]
[1]"Focus on the Family" newsletter for March, 1996 Page 4
[2]From a sermon by Don Shelby, First United Methodist Church, Santa Monica. Submitted by Don Maddox, Covenant United Presbyterian Church, Corona, CA.
[3]From Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary)(Copyright (C) 1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers
[4]Music for the Dance by Max Lucado From UpWords with Max Lucado 5-28-10
[5]The Militant Moderate (Rafter) Galaxie Software. (2002; 2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press.
