There’s a saying online when something gets really popular, that it goes “viral”. Not too long ago there a was 4 minute video posted on Youtube by a fellow named Jefferson Bethke. It was poem entitled, “Why I hate religion but Love Jesus”. In less than two years it was watched more than 26 million times. Something that would have been impossible even 20 years ago. And now there’s a book inspired by the poem. In our culture everything including Christianity becomes an industry.
I won’t get into the details of the poem but I want to make the illustration of what it means to go viral on the internet. This happens all the time because people of our generation practically live on the web.
As we continue in Acts chapter 11 we see that the church had already grown very rapidly, but now it is going to go viral in the first century.
The numbers we see of people getting saved and the growth of the church in a day when there wasn’t even much written material around, and it was carried by horse or boat at the fastest and farthest, I think these numbers probably would compete with what we see online with these kinds of things today.
Peter has just reported back to the Jerusalem church how he saw the Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit just like they did at Pentcost. Peter’s last words to the Jerusalem group are found in verses 17 and 18 of chapter 11. “Since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way. When the others heard this they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.” Again I would note, there is no mention of them praying a salvation prayer, but repentance is mentioned.
Now here in verse 19 of chapter 11 we see the masterful design of God’s plan beginning to unfold. Remember when Stephen was stoned, it sparked an incredible persecution of believers to the extent that all the believers except the Apostles fled out of Jerusalem. Now here it tells us where they went – as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. Antioch being the farthest away at about 500 miles or about a ten to twenty day journey by their modes of transportation. So to put it into context, it would be like us going farther than from one end of this continent to the other by car.
Now it says they only spoke to the Jews about Jesus. No one expected that this gift of salvation was for anyone else besides the Jews, they were God’s chosen people, to whom the Messiah would be sent.
Now there were already Jewish settlements in Gentile lands from the pre-Christ Diaspora or dispersion of the Jews several centuries earlier, and for the most part these would have been Greek speaking, or Hellenist Jews.
Those coming from Jerusalem would have spoken primarily Aramaic.
So now we see the word of Jesus Christ going viral through the testimony of these people that had been dispersed, and in verse 21 it says a great many believed and turned to the Lord, another way of saying, repented.
Word of this got back to the now small but powerful group still left in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch to see what was happening. Barnabas saw what was going on and he encouraged them to keep the faith and the church continued to grow.
So Barnabas went further up the road to Tarsus to get Saul or Paul, and bring him back to Antioch. For a whole year they taught these new believers (and my friends, that would have been everyday), and it was here in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians, which literally means follower of Christ.
This is significant. These followers of Christ were becoming distinguished from the rest of the Jews and the unbelieving people who probably were the ones that called them by this title. That word Christian has really lost its meaning over the years, and gets thrown around a lot. At that point in time, it was a very distinguishing label of people who followed Jesus teachings at the risk of their own life. Really the only people who have a right to call themselves Christians in the biblical sense are those who sacrificially follow Jesus.
But today, over 70% of Americans anyway call themselves Christians, but over half of them don’t read the Bible or go to church of any kind, so are they really Christians? Are you really a democrat or republican if all you did was vote?
Anyway some Christian prophets come from Jerusalem and predict that there will be a famine all over the entire world (at least the Roman Empire), so the disciples from the north sent relief according to their ability, to the brothers and sisters living in Judea, where Jerusalem is.
Now don’t overlook this. Why are these believers sending relief to Judea, didn’t the prophet say that the famine would be everywhere? Well yes, but remember that the majority of Christians now and through the travels of Paul, live outside of Judea. There is still persecution in Jerusalem as we will see. So even though Jerusalem was the sending church, it would now be the weakest in terms of numbers and resources. We see this even later in Acts when Paul is bringing an offering from the other new churches that he planted, to the Jerusalem church.
Now in chapter 12 we see that Herod still hated the church and he began taking matters into his own hands. First he kills James the brother of John, not the more famous brother of Jesus. And when he sees that the Jews like this, He arrests one of the main Jerusalem Church leaders, Peter. Herod was so worried about this that he assigned four squads of Roman soldiers to guard him, that would be four soldiers for four shifts during the 24 hour day. He wasn’t going to escape, or so they thought.
Now notice what time of year this is. The Scripture specifically mentions it is Passover. And no doubt Herod is reliving what happened at the last Passover when they had that whole Jesus crucifixion and resurrection thing. So he is taking action to ensure that nothing like that happens again this year. Of course while this is all happening the believers are earnestly praying, and we know that something always happens when they get together and pray.
Sure enough, an angel comes one night and let’s watch what happens starting in verse 6….
Now I love how the Bible describes this next part, read 18-19…
There is no way these guards would have fallen asleep natuarally. The punishment for losing a prisoner was death and these guys only did 6 hour shifts. Clearly they were put into some kind of trance or what was happening was made invisible to them or something.
There was no little disturbance among the soldiers because they knew they were about to be executed and it wasn’t even their fault.
In verse 20 we centre back on Herod. Now he has just made sure nothing too major happened over the Passover, so he’s feeling pretty good about himself, maybe even thinking, “Ah this time I outsmarted God like Satan thought he had last year”, until of course Peter has this miraculous escape.
Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon probably because he had been feeding these people, and with a famine beginning, this was becoming an inconvenience. Not to mention how angry he was because Peter escaped. It’s common for people to project their anger onto someone else when they are really angry about something else.
So these people come to seek peace with Herod. He gets all gussied up and gets on his throne to give some kind of speech.
Now Josephus reports that Herod’s royal robes were something to behold. Apparently they were made of silver and would shine brightly in the sun, giving him a godlike appearance. This appearance along with whatever he was saying, got the people to shout that “This is the voice of a god and not a man.”
Can you picture this next part? Because Herod didn’t immediately give glory to God and accepted this praise from these people, an angel of the Lord strikes him down dead and he is immediately eaten by worms. That’s what God does with anyone or anything that claims to be his competition. But don’t be afraid of Him. Remember Ananias and Sapphira as well.
Now after this happens, the word of God increased and multiplied. Yeah if I saw that, I would probably believe too, just like when Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead because they lied.
So finally as we come to the end of chapter 12, Barnabus and Saul return to Antioch from Jerusalem, after delivering some groceries and they bring John Mark with them.
At the beginning of chapter thirteen we see the beginning of the church really going viral. The prophets and teachers of the Antioch church now pray and worship and fast and the Holy Spirit said to them, “Set apart for me Barnabus and Saul for the work to which I have called them (which of course we know was to travel around the known world bringing the gospel to the Gentiles). Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
Now we’re going to stop here, and most of us know what happened from there. Pretty much most of the rest of the New Testament is about Paul’s 4 missionary journeys and his teachings to the Gentile church.
We have over the last several weeks tried to experience what it was like in the early church. We have seen many miracles and signs. Healings, bringing people back from the dead, speaking in languages never before known to them, Philip being instantly transported by the Spirit 30 miles away, and much more. All of it came from living as Christ told them to, and witnessing about Jesus death and resurrection.
What do we take from today’s passage that we can apply in our lives and church today?
I think it is the model for church growth and evangelism; the importance of having the Holy Spirit in us, and the persecution that comes from boldly proclaiming Jesus Christ as the only Lord and Saviour of all people.
The modern model of the North American church is to get people to come fill seats, and most church growth even in mega churches is transfer growth. The biblical model of the church is to send people who go and make disciples of all nations. How about our nation? Where are you and I going to make disciples? We are coming to church and then we go out into the world on Monday as if we are the same as everybody else, except we don’t drink, smoke and swear as much as some others.
People saw God when the Christians were around in the first century, and they believed because of it. They were told a message that fit with what they had learned about the God of the Old Testament. They knew about sin and knew that they needed a remedy for sin, and the message of Jesus made sense at least to many of them. They knew they needed Jesus not to help them have a better life necessarily, but to be right with God.
That background has been lost in our culture. There is no such thing as sin, so there is no need for God, certainly not Jesus as Saviour and Lord. I hate to say it folks, but until the concept of sin comes back into the picture and people understand and believe that, there will be very little new believer growth in the North American kingdom of God.
For me it’s the fear of God that has been lost. Even in the church we want to avoid that idea and focus on the love and the help that God can give you if you are a Christian. We are afraid of the real message of the Bible because many people won’t like it and they won’t come to church, so instead we have churches full of people who don’t really know why they’re there. And when God doesn’t make their lives better, which he rarely does by the way, or when he doesn’t perfect the people in the church, they leave and move on to the next self-help option out there.
Christianity is not a self-help program, it is an other help program, and we don’t need help with our marriages, our jobs, our finances, our mental health until we have the help we need to escape the penalty of sin, and then we realize that the way God helps in these other areas is through our obedience to his ways that he spells out clearly in his Word.
All we need to do is look around the church. Do we have better marriages, better health, more money, better jobs, less depression and anxiety than those outside the church? The answer is no, there are just as many people outside the church who are having excellent success in these areas just as there are many in the church who are not. Christians have just maybe become better at hiding their problems, because you’re not supposed to have any problems if you’re a Christian. If you do than people might not come to church. But there is little difference between the church and the world in terms of having better lives.
So really what is it we have to offer the world? What is the only thing you and I have that people can’t get anywhere else. Is it fellowship? No, people can get fellowship at a bar, or country club or the Legion, and frankly it’s probably more fun.
Is it entertainment? Well, we have pretty talented people here at Calvary, but I have been to many churches where the entertainment is not great, and the best of church entertainment can’t compete with what the world has to offer.
Is it self-help or counselling? No, there are lots of self help gurus and professional counsellors out there that will probably make your life better than being a Christian can. And frankly there are many very bad Christian counsellors and pastors who give bad counsel. So what do we have to offer that people can’t get in the world outside of the church?
Is it miracles? No, if you do your research you’ll see that there are many miracles in the world, as there are in the Christian church. They may not all be from God, but you hear about all sorts of miracles out there, and yes, some of them do turn people to Christ, but many don’t.
Is it love? I don’t think so. There a lots of people outside of Christianity who do a very good job of loving people. And there are many judgmental unloving people in the church.
Is it charity? There are lots of wonderful charity organizations outside of Christianity that frankly have more resources that many Christian charity organizations have. And there are lots of generous non-Christians in the world.
It is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the bad news of sin, and the good news of his death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sin and eternal life that it brings. That’s it. Yes we can get some of those other things as well at church, but I think the truth is that even us Christians sometimes think that we need to have something more to offer than the gospel. But do you know who that’s really for, us, not the unbelievers out there. And by thinking that we need something more than Jesus and Hs word, what are we saying about what Jesus did and who he is? Aren’t we being hypocrites by saying Jesus is all that, but we act like he isn’t.
Well, Jesus is nice, but I could sure use a better job, or a changed husband, or better health. And that is where North American Christianity is going. We are trying to offer things that people want, instead of what Jesus gives and what we all really need. That’s the prosperity gospel, and it creates a lot of happy prosperous people who get to go to hell when they die. Or it creates a lot of guilty people who don’t believe they have faith, because their lives are not improving.
We have to, HAVE TO get back to doing what we were called to do. Tell the truth about mankind in our fallen sinful state, and what the remedy is. We simply have to share the truth of all of God’s word, and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything that Jesus commands. If people don’t like that, then they need to take it up with God.
Is that fun? Well, maybe if we see God work. And yes we need to find ways to do that in our different culture. That is what I hope to do with you in the New Year after the Advent season. Help us figure out how to do what the early church did, what Jesus has called us to do, in the 21st century Canadian culture. Like the quote behind me, we are called to be like a virus, a good virus, but many people will hate it, and want to get rid of it. And Jesus warned us about that.
What is a flu shot or any immunization? Isn’t it basically giving a little virus to prevent a more deadly kind of infection? The outcome of the virus of sin can only be prevented with the virus of Jesus, and we are called to be that virus while he is not present on earth.
And I would encourage you to think about ways to do this, and how you might go about doing this in your personal life. And frankly it might mean fewer people in our church, it might mean, going through some embarrassment or mild persecution. At least then we would know we are on the right track. For instance, how many of you would get in trouble for evangelising at work or at school? So we don’t, they would have. Who should I obey, God or man?
Gordon said up here a couple weeks ago, what are you gonna do with your life for God? And let me just ask a question. What if you loved the dickens out of someone for the rest of your life, but never tell them about sin and salvation through Jesus Christ. And you invested all this time and love on them, and you loved them really well, and the end comes, off you go to heaven, and off they go somewhere else. How would you feel?
