Who and What is a Christian?
Acts 11:19-30
Pastor Allan Kircher
Series: Acts; God’s vision for Shell Point
July 31, 2011
We are rapidly coming to the close of our study of the first part of the book of Acts.
The first preachers of the gospel were dispersed from Jerusalem.
POWER POINT………………………….
• Time of Stephen’s death.
• 7 years prior to this chapter.
• God suffered them/to be dispersed/sow the seed of God/in order to bring forth much fruit.
• The enemy designed to scatter/lose them
• God designed to scatter/use them.
• Thus the wrath of man is made to praise God.
God had used this time to build the foundation of faith.
• To break down the prejudices of the self seeking Jews.
• To strengthen them in grace and build them up.
• They had to grow in Christ/in foundation/before witnessing to the Gentiles.
I. Preaching Fugitives 11:19-21
None/Jewish believers who fled their homes under the persecution of Saul were glad to have run away and leave their possessions and even their families, but they didn’t waste much time lamenting their loss.
They went to Phoenicia, Cyprus and Cyrene.
POWER POINT………
• Preaching to the Jews they met. (v. 19)
• Why just the Jews?
They simply had not grown enough in Christ to preach to all they met.
• Didn’t have the courage of heart sufficient enough yet.
• Why/ 7 years for their walls of prejudice to fall down!
A. The right instruments had to be prepared.
• Nothing is worse than sending out/unprepared person/a job.
• It took time to mature these people.
• Do you realize that when the church was formed everybody was a baby?
• It's tough enough in a church dealing with a group of spiritual babes, but can you imagine having a congregation all saved the same day?
• Can you imagine having 3,000 like that, one day old trying to get around to all of them, teaching them the basics.
Even if you have a terrific foundation, if you have guys building the walls that don’t know what they’re doing the walls will fall.
• So they needed time for preparation.
• And for these reasons, it took seven years before the Spirit of God moved to Antioch, and believe me the groundwork was done right.
• And when that church moved out to build, they really built; they really built.
POWER POINT………..
It was a little easier for some. Some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene. Hellenists/Greek speaking Jews).
• They were Jews/but accustomed to mingling w/Gentiles.
• They returned to their homeland/ventured out/preached the Word.
• Perhaps they had seen Peter’s work w/Cornelius.
• They began to reach out to Gentiles in Antioch.
(v.20b ) Now Antioch/long way from Jerusalem/400 miles/ north.
POWER POINT……….
• Now Antioch was a major ancient metropolis. 3rd largest.
• Third largest city in the empire, behind/Rome/ Alexandria,
• Population of about 600,000.
• Only city in the ancient world that had/streets lighted/night.
• Many trade routes passed through Antioch
• made it a wealthy and culturally diverse city
• Made/vile place-full of pagan worship/sexual immorality.
• The people lived for their pleasures.
Power Point……
• The biggest contributors to Antioch's depravity/temple of Daphne that was located only five miles outside the city.
• The goddess Daphne was the lover of Apollo.
A garden was built 10 miles/circumference/populated by prostitutes and when you went in you indulged yourself in the garden and the prostitute activity and sick immoralities.
That was the worship of/city/Antioch
One writer said that life there was a perpetual festival of vice revolving around the baths, brothels, And so it was an evil place.
When they wanted to expand their religious opportunities they hired magicians, sorcerers, charlatans and Babylonian astrologers made a fortune off the people of Antioch. So it was a vile place.
So, think of it as the "red light" district of the world.
• But you know God so many times finds that the most lovely rose grows amidst the most ugly weeds, and so he designed to plant the first church in Antioch.
• He wanted/reach a city in this magnitude and indeed He did.
But in spite of the prevalence of all this immorality, a powerful Christian church started and GREW in Antioch, and the way its members lived led to their being given this name: "Christians."
Antiochene’s were out and out idolaters, living in all the sins of paganism.
What a day it must have been when the gospel of the grace of God was preached first to men like that!
POWER POINT….
II. (v.21). “A great number believed, and turned to the Lord.”
I wish we could always keep to the simplicity of things as we find them here.
• What led them to the Lord?
• The proclamation of the grace of God. Nothing else.
They did not have to depend on all the other things to which preachers resort today in order to attract the people.
They simply went to preaching Christ and Him crucified, and God set His seal on that message and brought them to a saving knowledge of His blessed Son.
Power Point…..
III. Barnabas to Antioch (11:22-24)
The news reached all the way back to Jerusalem!
• Created a stir among the brothers. They were excited!
• In their growth, they did not take a stand of opposition.
• Jerusalem was considered the mother church.
• James, the brother of Jesus was the pastor of the church.
• Barnabas had been a special servant of that congregation.
• They sent Barnabas to investigate.
• Barnabas was a trusted man.
POWER POINT….
Remember he had large properties in Cyprus, his native island, and he sold those properties and brought the money and laid it at the apostle’s feet to be used in helping needy brothers.
He was characterized/sincere faith in the Lord/his love for others.
So they decided this is the man to go!
To report to them the character of work in Antioch.
A. (V. 23) When he came and had seen the grace of God [he] was glad.”
POWER POINT….
How can anybody see the grace of God?
• Grace is God’s undeserved favor granted to poor lost sinners who put their trust in the Lord.
Strictly speaking, we cannot see grace any more than we can see love, or its antithesis, hate.
Then what did Barnabas see?
• We see the effects of hate in the unkind things it does
• We see the grace of God manifested in the changed lives of those who have received and believed the gospel message.
This is how the gospel is propagated.
The gospel proves itself by what it does.
• How is it working in you?
• Is the grace of God evident in your life?
• Can people see Jesus in you?
We hear a great deal about the need of a new gospel for a new age: but the old gospel still works, and works in power.
• When men and women believe it
• receive it in their hearts
• they become new creatures in Christ Jesus.
Licentious, wicked, unclean people become chaste, holy, and clean; righteous people become faithful, honest, and true.
This is how the grace of God is seen!
B. If we profess to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ let us be careful to manifest the reality of our faith by godly lives.
• The world is looking on to see what the gospel we talk about has done for us.
• Christian men/women should so live and walk before the world,
• act in their behavior among one another
• That the unsaved people will have to confess they see the grace of God in them.
So Barnabas went to Antioch and saw the grace of God.
C. He ministered to them, exhorted them all, stressing to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.
• How young converts need that!
• It’s not merely a matter of receiving Christ.
• When that happens thank God. You are saved!
• From that moment on we need/cleave/Lord with purpose/heart.
Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.” John 8:31.
Our Lord has warned us that no man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
God give us to plow a straight furrow—to go on in the path of devotion to the Lord!
How do we cleave to Him? With purpose of heart.
POWER POINT…..
D. Give the word of God a proper place in your heart.
• Don’t let a day go by/you don’t spend time in your bible.
• You cannot grow in grace without it.
• We can’t find our way through the world without it
• The word is the only food for our enlightenment.
• Be careful to meditate on the word of God.
• See that you spend time daily waiting upon God in prayer.
• Prayer is the Christian vital breath.
A believer who is not given to prayer will never really count for God in this life.
Next, we should cultivate Christian fellowship—seek the association of those of like precious faith.
POWER POINT…..
E. None of us are strong in ourselves, we need one another.
• We are to encourage one another, to be helpers of one another in the faith.
• Let us be unsparing in self-judgment.
---When conscious of failure, or sin
---When we have yielded in any sense to temptation
---Let us not go on getting deeper and deeper into things/wrong, drifting farther/farther from God;
---But turn at once to the Lord, face the matter in His presence; and remember 1 John 1:9.
This is what is meant by cleaving to the Lord with purpose of heart,
Recognizing His authority over our lives and His ownership of all we have and are.
VI. (v.24) “He was a good man.”
I would like to live that this might always be said of me.
• It means far more than if people would say,
• He was funny…He was talented…He was a great singer…
• You see, one may be funny, talented, educated but not be a good man.
• “The steps of a good man, are ordered by the Lord”
Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.
POWER POINT….
Our faith should SHOW.
• Our world is just as dark as Antioch-probably even darker
• if we live the Christian life, it will naturally contrast against the backdrop of our fallen culture.
• The light of our love for Jesus will make us STAND OUT.
You see becoming a Christian is not REFORMATION-it is TRANSFORMATION.
When we invite Jesus Christ into our lives we are REBORN-we are TRANSFORMED into new people.
The more we allow God's transforming power to work in our lives, the more our faith will show-the more we will STAND OUT.
POWER POINT…
III. Barnabas Enlists Saul (Acts 11:25-26)
• Barnabas was also a self-effacing man;
• He realized his own limitations/was glad to recognize a man with greater ability than he had himself.
• The harvest was too vast for Barnabas to handle alone.
• So he went to seek Saul. Saul was in Tarsus.
Barnabas appreciated what had taken place in the life of Saul.
He recognized this man’s remarkable ability, and knew he was a chosen vessel to give the gospel to the Gentiles.
Barnabas might have said, “I can go on ministering here with nobody interfering with me.” But, no, he said, “I would do better to fade out a little and get a more capable man to take my place”—and off he went to Tarsus.
I would have loved to hear that interview with Saul.
So far as we know, Saul was in retirement, as though he had failed to qualify as a preacher of the Word, after he left Jerusalem.
We do not read any work he was doing.
But I think one day he was sitting in his home feeling a bit gloomy, saying to himself, “The Lord cannot use me. People are not willing to receive my message”—when suddenly there was a knock at the door!”
So the man from Tarsus, packed his clothes, got a few books, and left as soon as possible.
For a full year they labored together in Syria, preaching Christ, reveling in the response, and developing a glorious friendship.
POWER POINT…
V. (v. 26) “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.”
They were called “Christian” because they were divinely called.
Since the Jews who came preaching and their Antiochene converts were always talking about Christos the Greek form of the title Messiah, it was not long before outsiders were calling them Christ-people, Christians.
• And the name fit. Christ living in them.
• Who and what is a Christian?
• We often use the term in a very loose way today.
We speak of Christians as we do of Mohammedans or Jews, as denoting a company who profess certain religious views.
There are millions of Americans and thousands of church members who are not Christians.
• What is a Christian?
• The disciples were divinely called Christians
• Those who received the Word of God in their hearts.
• They received the gospel and therefore were born again through the power of the risen Christ in heaven.
• They were Christians because they belonged to Christ.
• A Christian is Christ’s representative here in this world.
Hey, the things that you do on a daily basis—can you say today that they are representing Christ?
• If you're a Christian and you wear the name of Christ,
• Wear it well, deserve it or don't claim it.
• It is a high privilege to represent Christ in this world.
Some people will bend over backwards, doing this, doing that trying to please their boss at all cost.
Are you doing the same for the One who gives you eternal life?
You belong to Christ period…you are united with the living God!
Shouldn’t you seek to live out the life of Christ before men?
That is what Paul meant when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”
• Do you feel it! Is it an imminent presence in your life?
• God give us to be consistent Christians!
• There is no greater testimony to the power of the gospel than that.
So the church grew. The church not only needed to be sound in doctrine, but they needed to have love.
A solid church needs two things: sound doctrine and love and they had it.
Antioch wasn't just doctrinal, they were loving.
There's always the need for that balance.
POWER POINT…
VI. Love one for another Acts 11:27-29
And now for the remaining verses of the chapter we have a beautiful little illustration of Christian love in action.
The gift of prophecy still goes on, which is preaching. But the office of a prophet is ceased.
• A prophet named Agabus came to Antioch.
• He had come to speak for God and tell the church at Antioch that there should be great famine throughout all the world, which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.
So this was a verified thing. He says, "There's coming a famine.
Then the disciples, every man according to his ability determined to send relief unto the brethren who dwelt in Judea."
They said, hey if there's going to be a famine down there we got to send our money to those people.
Here are Gentiles showing their love who so long hated them. What a beautiful picture of love.
And I love this fact, too. It says they sent according to his ability.
• Every man maximized his gift.
• Every man gave it means according to the potential that he had.
• I get so weary of Christians who tip God.
• It doesn't affect me. It just affects them.
• You know dollar-a-week people who just think they can tip God.
• These people showed real love because they gave according to their ability to give.
• If they had a lot, they gave a lot. If they had a very little they gave a little.
• But they gave in proportion to what they had and they supplied the need of those Jews in Jerusalem who had a hard time loving them.
VI. Verse 30 says, "This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul."
You want to hear something else? They not only sent money, they sent men.
• Which men did they send? Their best.
Listen friends, I hope our church not only has the right groundwork, and right growth, but I hope we're generous enough to send money and men around the world.
• Do you hope that? That's the only thing we can offer isn't it?
We can offer the Lord Jesus Christ two things.
• One, in this little record money.
• You don't give to Allan Kircher. You don't give to SPBC.
• You give to the Lord Jesus Christ for His work.
We need money to do what God wants us to do.
Secondly, I pray God we'll send men, our best men to do God's work.
And I pray God overall that SPBC will follow the pattern of Antioch and have the same kind of effect on the world.
The Rest of the Story:
With the true love that reigns in the heart of these Christians in Antioch, they come together and send relief to the mother church in Jerusalem.
Ironically if some of the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem had had their way, there would have been no church in Antioch or anywhere else.
Yet here is the very church sending money to those who had originally sought to limit the church to Jews only.
• These Christian Gentiles in Antioch heard of the distress of their brothers.
• They did not need to be urged, or pleaded with.
• They knew their brothers in Judea were in need and they gladly helped.
What started these men thinking beyond the boundary lines of their own nations? Their own needs?
• It was the love of Christ shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Here is the first instance in history of people putting together their money in order to send relief to men of another nation.
• Christianity is the truest philanthropy!
• Do you have this type of philanthropy in your heart?
Christianity teaches men formerly actuated by selfishness to find real joy in ministering to those in less comfortable and less agreeable circumstances than their own.
How could it be otherwise?
We owe everything for eternity to the One who came from the heights of glory to lay down His life for our sins,
and surely “we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”
Well, what about you? Are you the kind of compassionate GIVER at work or in your neighborhood-that sets you apart such that your Christian faith shows?
Have you strived to grow spiritually such that you are KNOWN as a Christian?
Have you let Jesus transform you such that you stand out?
Let me put it this way, "If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"
Let us pray. Father God,
Speak to all of us present this morning-
first to those who are here and are NOT Christians.
Convict them of their need to respond to Your love expressed in sending Jesus Christ, Your only Son to die for our sins.
And then also speak to those of us who ARE Christians.
Convict us or our need to let Your power change us so that we act-love-give-in the same way that Jesus did...
help us to be KNOWN as Your children.
I ask all this in Jesus' name. AMEN.
As we stand and sing, I invite you to come as God leads.
