Lessons from Antioch

© Bentley Baptist Church Inc.
www.bentleybaptist.org

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're continuing in the book of Acts, going to be
reading from Acts, chapter 11.
It will be up on the screen,but I always encourage you to
open up an app or, even better,open up a Bible and just engage
with it.
It's just a bit more personaland immediate.
So, acts, chapter 11, verse 19.

(00:28):
Now, those who had beenscattered as a result of the
persecution that started becauseof Stephen made their way as
far as Phoenicia, cyprus andAntioch, speaking the word to no
one except Jews.
But there were some of them,men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who
came to Antioch and beganspeaking to the Greeks, also

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proclaiming the good news aboutthe Lord Jesus.
The Lord's hand was with themand a large number who believed
turned to the Lord.
News about them reached thechurch in Jerusalem and they
sent out Barnabas to travel asfar as Antioch.
When he arrived and saw thegrace of God, he was glad and

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encouraged all of them to remaintrue to the Lord with devoted
hearts, for he was a good man,full of the Holy Spirit and of
faith, and a large number ofpeople were added to the Lord.
Then he went to Tarsus tosearch for Saul, and when he
found him, he brought him toAntioch.
For a whole year they met withthe church and taught large

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numbers.
The disciples were first calledChristians at Antioch.
In those days, some prophetscame down from Jerusalem to
Antioch.
One of them, named Agabus,stood up and predicted by the
spirit that there would be asevere famine throughout the
Roman world, and this took placeduring the reign of Claudius.
Each of the disciples,according to his ability,

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determined to send relief to thebrothers and sisters who lived
in Judea.
Sorry, there we go up on thescreen.
They did this, sending it tothe elders by means of Barnabas
and Saul.
So Jesus said that he would growhis church and I don't know

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about you, but most Christians Ispeak to just ordinary
Christians.
Obviously, pastors always feelgood when their church is
growing, but I think mostChristians also feel good when
they have a sense that thechurch is growing and healthy
and strong.
Now, growth can lead to allsorts of challenges and problems
, but that's a discussion foranother day.

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The thing with growth is it'soften a sign of health and being
part of a growing church canmean that we're part of good
things that God is doing.
Now I don't think we shouldchase growth per se.
I gave that up a long time ago.
But there are things we shoulddo anyway that will very often

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lead to growth, and the book ofActs is about the growth of the
church and particularly thespread of the gospel from
Jerusalem to Rome.
And in today's story we seesignificant progress as the
gospel moves to the thirdlargest city in the empire, so

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Antioch in Syria.
Now there's two Antiochs in theancient world.
One was in Syria and one was inanother province that I forget
right now.
So this is often called theSyrian Antioch.
But it's not only the gospel'sadvancement towards Rome that we
see.
We also see a change a littlebit in sort of I guess you'd say

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God's strategy, because I don'tthink any human is
orchestrating this, as differentsort of missionaries engage a
different sort of audience.
But even as the church becomesincreasingly multicultural,
there's a beautiful display ofunity and giving and receiving

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by the Greek-speaking andGentile church in Antioch and
the Hebrew-speaking Jewishchurch in Jerusalem.
So we're going to look thismorning and see what we can
learn from this church atAntioch.
First, I do want to just pullup a map.
Sorry, there we go, we'll getthere, okay, map of the area.

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So we have, jerusalem is downhere.
That's the Dead Sea there, andthen up here we have Antioch.
So you can see it's quite aways.
It's several hundred kilometersOver here.
I mentioned Tarsus I hope youcan see my little pointer up
there.
So that's where Paul washanging out, was Paul's hometown
, and so as we go through, yousee Tarsus is actually quite a

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bit closer to Antioch thanJerusalem is.
So we see the church startingto develop a little bit of its
own personality, the Gentilechurch, even at this early stage
.
So until now Christianity, asthe Antiochans dub it, has
basically been a sect withinJudaism.
It was very Jewish and it'smostly been the thoroughly

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Jewish apostles who haveadvanced the gospel, although we
do see Greek-speaking Jewsdoing that as well.
But then in the previouspassage, if you were here last
week, luke describes thegospel's giant leap across this
chasm.
And it really was a chasmbetween Jews and Gentiles when

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the first Gentiles, the house ofCornelius, a Roman centurion,
became believers.
And now it seems like thegospel is completely off the
leash and the kingdom grows aspersecuted believers scatter and
share the message.
Now isn't that interesting.
You'd think that persecutionwould have quelled the spread of
the gospel.

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That's sort of what persecutionusually aims to do persecution
of Christians, at least butinstead it was like beating a
fire, you know, you see, you canbeat a fire and sometimes it'll
put the fire out, and sometimesyou beat a fire have you ever
done that?
And the sparks go everywhereand start other fires.
And it's like that's what'shappening here, when the Jewish

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authorities are trying to beatdown the Christians and of
course this still happens today.
Wicked governments try tosuppress the gospel and
sometimes they succeed, and inhistory they have.
But do you know where thefastest growing church in the
world is today?
Iran, that's right, iran, whereMuslims can be put to death for

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becoming Christians.
And yet they're becomingChristians in their thousands.
They're driven into undergroundchurches, house churches, and
the government tries to poundthem.
But like those sparks, just thegospel just keeps spreading.
And Iran isn't the only placewhere that's happening.

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So look, no one welcomespersecution, but we need not
fear it for the sake of thegospel.
We'll probably fear it forother reasons, but we need not
fear it for the sake of thegospel.
But it does mean we need to bewalking closely with Christ and
loving him even more than ourown lives if we're going to

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withstand that and, given thatthere is an eternal aspect to
this, holding on in the face ofpersecution does affect our
eternity.
So it's important and, as Jesussaid, anyone who loves spouse,
parents and children, even theirown life, more than him is not

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worthy of him.
Quite the challenge.
But these people were up to itNow.
They had scattered, they hadfled persecution, but they took
the gospel with them andfearlessly preached it.
Part of the key to the spread ofthe gospel was its
democratization, and by that Imean ordinary believers

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recognize that it wasn't onlythe job of the Jerusalem
apostles, wasn't only the job ofthe Jerusalem leaders to share
the gospel, but it was theirs aswell, and that they had
permission and they had power bythe Holy Spirit to do that.
And, of course, at first it wasjust Jews who shared the gospel

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with other Jews and, let's behonest, it's always easier to
communicate with people who arelike me, and there's absolutely
nothing wrong with that, by theway.
You know, in terms of the Jews,they needed the gospel just as
much as anyone else.
And who better to share thegospel with Jews who were

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thoroughly steeped in theirscriptures than someone else who
spoke the language, understoodtheir culture and the scriptures
as well.
They need the gospel.
They still need the gospel.
Jesus is still their Messiah.
But notice the people who startto cross the cultural barriers

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and go to the Greeks, jews,jewish believers, but from the
island of Cyprus, which you seeup there, the pink blob in the
middle of the map, and fromCyrene, which is in North Africa
, sort of off the map, furtheralong from Egypt, in what is now
modern-day Libya.
And so these Jews, they hadgrown up with the scriptures in

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a sort of probably a sort ofJewish sub community, but they'd
grown up in the Greek and Romanworld.
They probably spoke Greeknatively and although look,
let's face it they were probablyrepulsed by a lot of what
happened in Greek and Romanculture, because even by the
standards of our pretty lakesociety, a lot of it was pretty
disgusting.
But they would have understoodthe culture.

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These people weren'tnecessarily qualified in a
formal sense, but a few thingsmade them ideal missionaries.
First, they had a passion forJesus.
They loved the Lord.
They were being persecuted, butthey kept preaching after all.
Secondly, they knew the culturethey.

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And third, they evidently lovedthe people in that culture,
even though they were sodifferent to them, lived values
that would have been abhorrentto them, hung out in communities
that were different to theirown, but they loved the people
enough to reach out to them andfriends.
You don't have to be a pastor orgo to Bible college to be

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qualified to share the gospel.
Now, being a pastor can becomplicated.
Leading a church, even a fairlymodestly sized one like ours,
requires a whole bunch ofdifferent skills.
But sharing the gospel, no, youcan do that.
You can do that.
In fact, no one can do it quitelike you.

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There are people you can go toand places you can go to.
That I can't, that no one elsecan.
So who is God calling you toshare the gospel with?
And what does that look like?
Maybe it's friends, maybe it'scolleagues, neighbours.

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Maybe it means asking them ifthey want to read the Bible with
you.
I've got a friend who's justasked me to read the Bible with
him finally, after many years ofjust befriending him.
Maybe it's inviting them to theAlpha course in May.
Maybe it's just sharing a storyof faith All sorts of ways we
can share the gospel.

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But who do you have a gospelheart for?
How can you reach them.
Now, there was one other factorthat made the church in Antioch
so successful, and this wasmaybe a little bit outside their
hands, not entirely, but thatwas the God factor.

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The Lord's hand was on them.
Luke tells us they werefruitful not just because of
their skill and passion, butbecause God's favor was on them
and working through them.
And you know, god's hand willalso be on us when we step out
for him.
But maybe, like me, youstruggle with that a bit.

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You struggle with, maybe,knowing how to take the first
step, or maybe you're afraid offailing.
You know, in terms of takingthe first step, we talk here
about finding people of peace,people who, like you, you just
get on with, people who listento you, who are open to what you

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say and you know, maybe evensharing your faith, and people
who serve you.
If someone offers to buy you acoffee or mow your lawn or
whatever it might be, there'ssomething deeper going on there
and that can be an opening tosharing the faith.
But then you've done that.
Maybe you're afraid of failing,maybe you're afraid of looking

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a fool, maybe you're afraid ofimposing your beliefs on others.
So how do we get past that?
Well, as I've said, it'sidentifying people of peace.
Partly.
Partly it's a faith issue, Ithink, for a lot of us.
Do we believe God will honourour obedience?
Do we believe people need thegospel honor our obedience?

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Do we believe people need thegospel?
If you don't believe that,fundamentally, we're just not
going to care, we're not goingto think it matters.
Partly it's a love issue.
Do we love people enough towant to share this message of
salvation with them?
Partly it's a listening issue.
I mean listening to God.

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Are we hearing what the voiceof the Spirit is saying to us in
this regard?
Maybe it's all of the above,maybe it's something else.
What do we do?
Well, I think there are somethings we can do to prepare the
hearts of people, the soil ofother people's hearts, as well
as to strengthen our own in thisregard.

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And so we talk about blessingpeople in our context.
You know, it's very easy tobless someone, isn't it?
You're not putting anything onthem, you're not demanding
anything of them, you're nottrying to sell them anything.
I just want to bless you in thename of Jesus because I want
good things to come for you.
Anything.
I just want to bless you in thename of Jesus, because I want

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good things to come for you.
In blessing them, we can addthem to our five.
Remember when we went throughand talked about blessing and
how we talked about finding afive five people you can bless
for five weeks.
Maybe we can find people andadd them to our five.
And there's brochures out inthe foyer if you want to look at
that Speaking.
Blessing doesn't just benefitthe one we're blessing, it

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softens our heart as well.
And, of course, we can pray.
We can ask God to give us aheart to reach out, a boldness
or whatever it is we need,whatever it is we feel is
holding us back, and we can praythat God will give them a

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hunger and so that there's sortof a moving towards each other
in regard to the gospel, andpray that God will save them,
because there is an element ofGod's sovereignty in this.
God will do things when you'repraying that just go beyond you
Takes a little bit of the heatoff us, doesn't it?
Let God be God in people'slives.
So these believers are crossingcultural boundaries, they're

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seeing God's hand move, but thensomething happens in the church
, because it's not just aboutyou know, putting it on to you
guys here to get out there anddo it, or on me to get out there
and do it.
There's other things going onin the church that help
strengthen it and grow.
So the church in Jerusalem getswind that God is moving in

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Antioch Now.
Jerusalem is still the motherchurch.
There's a lot of respect there.
That's where the apostles arebased, so it still holds
authority and spiritually it'swell resourced.
And so they send Barnabas, theson of encouragement.
We met Barnabas when we lookedat the conversion of Saul, and

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Barnabas went and advocated forSaul when he went to Jerusalem.
And everyone's freaking outbecause Saul is the chief
persecutor of the church at thispoint.
Now.
Barnabas is a Cypriot, soCyprus up there, and so he's one
of these Greek-speaking Jewsthat knew the culture and he
comes and strengthens the workand the church in Antioch grows

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even further.
Now Barnabas either decidesthat he needs a little help or
he sees an opportunity for Saul,and so he goes to Tarsus and
looks for him is what the textindicates.
He has to go on a search.
Tarsus was Paul's home city andPaul is another Jew who

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understands Gentile culture,grew up in it.
Although the narrative in Actsflows seamlessly from one event
to another and it all seems tohappen fairly closely.
Actually, this could havehappened with a decade after
Paul's conversion.
So time is flowing on, and soSaul has had this time to

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develop his understanding of thegospel, experience God in new
ways, a little more deeply, andhis sharp mind and deep training
in the scripture is going toprove invaluable.
And of course, as we go deeperinto Acts, it becomes more about
Saul who becomes Paul'sministry.
But here's the thing when itcomes to gospel ministry,

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churches don't have to do italone.
It's really important that weas a church are in relationships
with other churches, with otherministries, so that we can find
support and certainly we canwork with other organisations.
We're part of the Baptistmovement in Western Australia,

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the Baptist Churches of WA.
We're partnering with Alpha.
We partner with local houses ofprayer I've told you about 24-7
Prayer, that we use some oftheir resources and we're
working with other churches.
So these are good, but I thinkthere's also value in
cultivating what we might callapostolic relationships.
Now I want to be a bit carefulhere, because talking about

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apostles can be a little bitcontroversial.
Of course, there is only 12apostles.
They are unique in theScripture.
They were the 12 Jesusappointed, and they're all dead.
They're not being replaced.
But there are still otherapostles.
Man, an apostle in the NewTestament in the Roman world,
was simply an emissary, someonewho was sent on behalf of

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someone else, and it became tobe used in the church of
particularly significant people.
In the more structured churchesthat have bishops, the bishops
have sort of arisen assuccessors to the apostles, and
so today we'll look we may notcall them apostles, but we'll

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look to trusted leaders whoexhibit the character of Christ,
who have a heart for the widerchurch and who have leadership
and ministry gifts that can helpnot just one church but
multiple churches in theirmission.
I'm reasonably limited.

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I've got a heart for one church.
I love working with otherchurches as partners, but my
ministry is here to Bentley.
There are others who will haveministry to the wider church and
bring something unique.
Now it's important to understandthat when people come in like
that, they don't exertinstitutional authority.
They can't tell us what to do.

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But such people, because we seesomething in them and they see
something in us, they exert arelational authority because we
let them speak into our lives,because we know we can see the
Lord's hand on them and theirheart for us.
If anyone ever does lord itover the church, we should
rightly flee from them.
But when these apostolicfigures come in humility to

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serve and speak into a churchand its leadership, they can be
a real asset to the church.
They can supercharge ourpersonal growth, encourage us so
much as well as build into thehealth of a church.
That's what we see happening inAntioch, between Antioch and
Jerusalem, with Barnabas andthen Saul, not sent by Jerusalem

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.
But not only apostolic ministry,but also this prophetic
ministry comes from Jerusalem aswell.
In this case a prophet, agabusand there's others with him
predicts the future under theguidance of the Holy Spirit.
Now, in the early church,prophets were fairly common and
often itinerant.
In fact, one of the earliestChristian documents written may

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even be with the New Testament,but soon after the Didache gives
instructions on how to handlethese itinerant prophets that
were coming around, becausesometimes they'd bludge off the
churches and the Didache saiddon't let them do that.
When we think of propheticministry, we often get Old
Testament images in our mind offiery prophets announcing

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judgment and calling the peopleback to faithfulness.
And well, maybe there's a placefor that.
But in my experience, newTestament prophecy and prophecy
today is far more aboutencouragement and there is a
guidance, there is what God isgoing to do, but it really
builds us up.
So we received an encouragingword last year from Kate Lewis

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at the local Houses of Prayergathering on the Sunday.
After that and laterincidentally, later this year
she'll be returning to run someseminars on prophetic ministry
specifically and hearing God'svoice.
So just keep tuned in when wegive you the dates, and I don't
want to talk too much aboutprophetic ministry this morning.
We're out of time for thatanyway.

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But what fascinates me aboutthis passage?
Not so much that they receive aword, because that sort of
comes across kind of ordinaryhere, but what they do with it.
See, agabus gets up and saysguys, there's going to be a
famine in the land.
And poor Claudius the emperorat that time he had several
natural disasters that he had todeal with, including several
famines.

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And so what does the church do?
Well, if someone comes in andsays, guys, there's going to be
a disaster, there's going to bethis famine, what are you going
to do?
I'm going to start stockpilingfood or something, right?
What does the church do.
It's like, oh man, we'd betterget with the program and give
money away.
What a heart of generosity tothe mother church, jerusalem.

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Now, I'm sure they probablyprepared themselves as well, but
isn't this a beautiful pictureof the church, as Jerusalem has
been building into Antiochspiritually.
Now they repay the motherchurch with a material blessing,
and we see this happen againlater as the gospel spreads to

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further Gentile churches.
There's more famines and theGentile churches turn around and
give to what was evidently theimpoverished Jerusalem church.
A generous church shares ingiving and receiving, both
spiritually and materially, andlet me commend Bentley Baptist.

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We do this particularly throughour missions giving, which will
be coming up in May, june.
We give away tens of thousandsof dollars and we have given
away tens of thousands ofdollars, and we have given away
tens of thousands of dollarsover the last three years.
So let's put this together.
What can we learn from Antioch?
Well, first and most important,that God's hand was on the

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church, and we want God's handon our church, and I believe
God's hand is on our church.
Be encouraged church.
So there is an element ofdivine sovereignty, but God also
responds to our faithfulness,and so are we seeking God's
favour through prayer and alsothrough obedience.
The Christians who brought thegospel to Antioch were bold in

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the face of persecution.
They fled persecution.
They were getting away from it,but they didn't let it stop
them.
They were passionate for thegospel and shared it wherever
they found themselves.
So how can we fan our passionfor the gospel and for Jesus?
Some of the Christians wereable to leverage their culture

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and their experience to jumpcultural boundaries and break
new ground.
So here's a question for youhow has God uniquely positioned
you as a believer, also us as achurch, to reach the people
around us?
And at the same time, thechurch benefited from wider

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relationships, receiving theblessing of apostolic and
prophetic ministry and repayingit with material blessing.
And this knit the churchestogether and benefited both.
Because ultimately, it's notabout our church, it's not
really about any church, it'sabout the church, it's about the
kingdom of God and his glory.
And so are we open to lettingothers speak into our church,

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and I think we are.
We welcome guest speakers, butnot just the odd guest speaker,
but perhaps other voices whomight speak a bit more
authoritatively, not to lord itover us as I said, we run from
those sorts of people, but tobuild us up Apostolic leaders
and prophets who we allow tospeak into our church and into

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our lives.
Leave those thoughts with you toponder.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for theconnection we have through
history.
It always blows me away thatthis is our story.
The story of Antioch is ourstory, the story of Antioch.

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We are connected throughgenerations of believers who
have faithfully passed on thegospel to the next generation
until it's reached all the waydown here to the bottom of
Australia.
Lord, we want to be a healthy,growing church.
We want to see the gospelimpacting the lives and

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community around us.
So we pray that you will movein our church, in our hearts and
in our community for your glory, amen.