The Gospel Spaketh, Antiochians Awaketh

Transcription

1 Dartmouth Bible Notes Notes from the Pulpit Ministry of Dartmouth Bible Church Series: Studies in Acts Lesson 25 Scripture: Acts Speaker: Rev. Neil C. Damgaard, Th.M., D.Min. Date: March 24 th, 2019 The Gospel Spaketh, Antiochians Awaketh Acts 11:19-26 (ESV) Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. Introduction I completed a Barna Research survey for pastors-only this week. It was about how the church manages and deals with relationships. The survey probed, among several topics, how much I preach specifically about the forces that pressure relationships: things like addiction, pornography, divorce, stresses of parenting and so forth. How much do I preach about these things? I thought, Man, I m just preaching through the Book of Acts. I guess that s lame. Maybe pastors should focus on people s problems and bring series after series about the stresses we are facing. Here s a stress: I wonder what form of danger it would take to force me to leave my home; to flee the city and move to another city? What would it take to force you to flee where you live and rush to get out of town and take up residence in another place? A disaster like a nuclear meltdown, a flood or a tsunami or a tornado? Even then most of us would hunker down, stock up on bread and milk and when the storm has passed, rebuild. But to flee Imagine that with me for a minute news comes and you know you have to leave. You have, let s say, three days to pack what you can, dissolve your bank account, say goodbye to whomever and just LEAVE. State-supported persecution DOES go on today. Take for example an article from an edition this week of The Wall Street Journal, which talks about a place called Urumqi in western China where a state security drive has

2 occurred to detain large numbers of citizens and now has escalated to demolish their neighborhoods and purge their mostly Muslim culture 1. (This is played out in Fiddler on the Roof at the end of the film). That is something most of us, maybe all of us cannot relate to because we have never known such a fearful and immanent danger that we would have to quickly pack our bags and get out of Dodge. In the Book of Acts we are moving on now from Peter and Cornelius. Luke had laid his pen down, got up and went and had a cup of tea, and now sits down again takes up his pen and moves into a new phase. The passage before us [Acts 11:19-26] is a short one, and contains a number of really interesting details about what happens, after Caesarea. It begins with verse 19: Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. People were scattered which means they became refugees. They sought refuge because of persecution. They found themselves in danger. Luke ties it back to his chapter 7. People today seem so offended at the smallest things but for the early disciples of Jesus it was worse than just being called names, or being deprived of opportunity or belittled. They had to LEAVE TOWN. Remember, Christianity was still looked at as something of a cult and some of the Jesusfollowers relocated very early as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch. As they fled north, they took the Gospel with them but so far only to Jews. They were out of Jewish territory, but still they were only feeling comfortable in talking about Jesus to Jews. I have to wonder that if I were in danger, would I even think to talk about Jesus if I was on the road, fleeing persecution. Wouldn t I be more stressed as to my iphone, my passwords, finding self-healing WiFi (a thing which I just heard about this week), whether my credit card would work, where my charger was, whether I could get in touch with our daughters, where am I going to get a cheeseburger, and so forth. Would I even THINK to talk about Jesus? I don t know if Christians TODAY do this, around the world when there is persecution by the way there IS still persecution today: Open Doors reports there are 150 countries today where Christians, specifically, are under persecution

3 I think that perhaps the Lord gives courage and opportunity in times like that. But notice what happens in verse 20: But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. Already we have believers in Christ, coming to the city of Antioch from south, and west, and NOW beginning to talk to GREEKS about the Lord Jesus. ANTIOCH is a city we never hear about but then it was a vibrant community in Acts 3. But think about this: You are a believer in Jesus, and you re from Cyprus let s say, and you are getting on a boat and crossing the water about 100 km (some from Cyrene 4 which was on the north shore of Libya came further) and you travel to Seleucia, and then by land the short distance to Antioch and you want to tell whoever will listen about Jesus even Greeks! Hey Mr. Greek guy have you heard about Jesus, the Nazarene? He was Jewish, and he was crucified by the Romans down in Jerusalem, but you know what? He came back to life and appeared to over five hundred people. He is alive. He died for a reason. He died to give anybody forgiveness of all our sins before God. Here s the sequence of what happened at this point, as Luke walks us through it: 1. They spoke. Their ministry was verbal. God has ordained that the hearing of the good news, its processing through the ears and the mind and the will, might bring the fruit of redemption. They preached the Lord Jesus. This doesn t necessarily mean preach like we would think about it. The word in Greek is a really cool 7 syllable participle! It is EVANGGELIDZÓMENOI εὐαγγελιζόμενοι 5. It means to talk about, proclaim the good news. That might be a public speaking event or it may be one on one. Luke s point is> they talked to people about the Lord Jesus. 2. And in this case when they talked to people the hand of the Lord was with them. What better place to be in? God blessed their verbal ministry. a. That doesn t mean that every person they spoke with responded. b. It doesn t mean that no Greeks had any questions. c. It doesn t mean that the Cypriot and Cyrenaic believers were at no risk or in no danger. It DOES mean that God was right there with them and that their verbal ministry reaped a great harvest of souls. 3 See Acts 11:27, 13:1; 14:26; 15:22,23,30,35; 18:22 as noted by Darrell Bock, Baker Exegetical Commentary on Acts, Acts 2:10 5 Verb, Present, Middle, Participle, Nominative, Masculine, Plural of evangelidzo, to proclaim the good news. 3

4 3. News of this travelled to Jerusalem. The success news travelled back to HQ fast! We love news like this too. (I hope we hear some cool stuff in our missions conference in two weeks!) 4. The main disciples sent Barnabas to check it out. The news of Peter and Cornelius wasn t even old yet and now we get Cypriot and Libyan (Cyrenaic) guys bringing Greeks to Christ in Antioch! Yo Barnabas go check that out for us will you? This is getting out of control! 5. He saw the grace of God and was glad. Barnabas gets on his donkey or camel or whatever, heads up the 300 miles to Antioch to investigate and finds Greek pagans believing in Jesus just like he does! Can we see the grace of God? YES, if we re looking for it. If our focus is on how is God working? 6. Lots of people came to Christ ( were added to the Lord ). a. Luke does not say they were added to the First Bible Church of Antioch and b. he doesn t say they were added to someone s personal tally of soulsconverted; he uses the expression that they were added to the Lord. We are not even told any of the names and apparently neither was Luke of the Cypriot and Libyan evangelists. IT IS TO GOD S GLORY AND TO THE BRIDE OF CHRIST THAT A SOUL IS ADDED WHEN THAT PERSON BELIEVES THE GOOD NEWS. 7. Barnabas went and got Saul and took him there. I can relate to the idea of wanting to hire someone specific to work alongside. If I could pick my coworkers there are definitely certain names I could think of. Barnabas, being an encourager, thought of Saul. He went and got him. 8. Barnabas and Saul ministered there together for a year. Where did they stay? How did they eat? What happened such that they decided they were done? I don t know any of these details. But the Antiochian believers were blessed and well-taught for a year. 9. The Christians were first called Christians in Antioch (11:26c). This is one of the things you start to see when you re doing real Bible study! Christians were not always called Christians, in fact the word itself is only IN the New Testament three times 6. Before Antioch they were mainly called disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. The study of what believers are called in the New Testament is an interesting evolution as the apostles gained more and more understanding of what it really means to come to faith in Christ. And as for the term Christians apparently this was a word OTHER people first called them, not one they invented. In Acts Christians are also called saints (9:13), disciples (6:2), believers (4:32), the church (8:1), brothers (1:15) and Nazoreans (24:5). We undergo the same process. We don t know all that it means to be a Christian when we first come to faith. Each year we learn a little more about who we are in Christ. And as we meet OTHER people who have come to the same 6 Acts 11:26, 26:28 and 1 st Peter 4:16 4

5 faith in Jesus Christ that we have, we are amazed over and over again at the grace of God, the sovereignty of the Spirit in bringing to faith whom He will, and the overwhelming goodness of God. Behold Him there, the Risen Lamb My perfect, spotless righteousness, The great unchangeable I am, The King of glory and of grace! One with Himself I cannot die My soul is purchased by His blood My life is hid with Christ on high, With Christ, my Savior and my God With Christ, my Savior and my God 5

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