Mosquitoes, Ticks, and Chiggers Series Sermon 2: Spiritual Myopia / February 3, 2013 (Acts 11: They were first called Christians in Antioch)

Transcription

1 Mosquitoes, Ticks, and Chiggers Series Sermon 2: Spiritual Myopia / February 3, 2013 (Acts 11: They were first called Christians in Antioch) If you have your Bible, or your Bible app with you, open up to Acts we ll get there in a couple minutes. Acts Here s the deal: It s not just about believing in him, it s about being like him. (repeat) I ll get back to that later. How many of you guys are near sighted? That means you can see things pretty well up close, but the farther away things are the fuzzier they get. Eye doctors call it Myopia : you can see clearly up close, but things in the distance are out of focus. Now here s what intrigues me: physical myopia is a problem, spiritual myopia is huge problem, and a whole lot of us Christians are infected. We see pretty well up close, but we are blind to things that are far away. I care about me, and mine, and maybe a few of you who are part of my little world; but I care very little about people who are not part of my little world. Do some of you guys watch the Doomsday Preppers on the National Geographic channel? I have to admit I have watched several episodes. It s kind of fascinating. Now I ll admit that there is a piece of me that wants to be prepared for some big emergency, but there is something about the way some of these guys go about it that is wrong (at least for us Christians). I watched one little kid bragging. He says, The apocalypse is coming; we re going to be ready, and you re not! And he was laughing! I ll take care of me and mine; sorry about your luck! Here s the deal guys, If the early disciples of Jesus had adopted a myopic doomsday prepper worldview (that it s all about protecting me and mine, sorry about your luck), they would never have called us Christians. Because, it s not just about believing in him, it s about being like him. I believe that if the early Christians had adopted a myopic doomsday prepper mentality (that it s all about me and mine, sorry about your luck), the church would have died in infancy and, good riddance. Page 1 of 10

2 Okay, Acts Luke says, It was in Antioch that the disciples were first given the name of Christians. Now listen, guys: wearing the name Christian isn t just about believing in Jesus, it s about being like him. It s an odd little note. For fifteen years after the resurrection of Jesus they didn t call us Christians, and it was not a name we gave ourselves. We didn t call ourselves Christians, at first; the Jews never called us Christians (because that would mean we were followers of the real Christ). We were first called Christians in Antioch, 300 miles away from Jerusalem, a long ways from Israel by Gentiles who didn t believe in Jesus. That s weird, isn t it? And they didn t call us Christians just because we believed in Jesus, the Christ. Let s kind of go back a few verses and take a run at it: Acts Luke says, The believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen s death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. They preached the word of God, but only to Jews. Now Stephen s death is way back there in Acts chapter 7. The believers that scattered were Jews, and they began sharing Jesus with other Jews in Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch spreading north. You see, most of them still figured that only Jews belonged in their boxes. They didn t know about the story we studied last week, the story of Peter and Cornelius, where God destroyed Peter s box. But a few of them started figuring it out on their own. Luke says, verse 20, However, some of the believers who went to Antioch from Cyprus and Cyrene began preaching to the Gentiles about the Lord Jesus. That was weird! That was box-annihilating! That was revolutionary! But God was in it. Verse 21: The power of the Lord was with them, (these Jewish believers who were taking Jesus to Gentiles, God was with them) and a large number of these Gentiles believed and turned to the Lord. These Jewish believers stepped way out of their comfort zone and God was in it. Well this was flat out cool, way up north, in Antioch. But this was kind of weird, for the Jewish Christians way down south in Israel. You are sharing Jesus with Gentiles? And they are responding in large Page 2 of 10

3 numbers? Is that okay? (verse 22 on screen) So they send a guy to Antioch named Barnabas. If you have been with us as we have been plowing through Acts, you probably remember Barnabas. He was a really good guy. In Acts chapter 4 he is named as one of the guys who sold property and gave the money to the church so they could take care of some believers who were in trouble, financially. In Acts 9 he was the believer who was courageous enough to take a chance on Saul, who became the apostle Paul. Well Barnabas is exactly the right guy to go check things out in Antioch. Three reasons: Luke says, verse 23: When (Barnabas) he arrived and saw this evidence of God s blessing, he was filled with joy, and he encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord. He was an encourager there s that word again. In fact, Barnabas wasn t his real name. His real name was Joseph. They called him Barnabas because he was an encourager: Barnabas means one who encourages. You see, some guys go around looking from problems. Some guys think they have the spiritual gift of criticism. They usually do more damage to the church than good. It is cool, it is so refreshing to have someone who looks for a way to encourage you, isn t it? Can you imagine how cool it would be to have 100 Barnabas clones running around this place? And then, verse 24, Luke says, Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. Do you know what made him such a good man? Do you know how you can tell he is full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith? You see, for Barnabas, it wasn t about what he wanted for the church; it was all about what God wanted. If God was in this thing, this preaching to the Gentiles, then Barnabas was all for it. Guys, it doesn t matter what I want for Capital City Christian Church; it doesn t matter what you want for Capital City; what matters is what he wants. You buy that? One more piece: Barnabas was exactly the right guy because he knew who to get to keep this good thing going. Verse 25 (-26): Then Barnabas went on to Tarsus to look for Saul. When he Page 3 of 10

4 found him, he brought him back to Antioch. Both of them stayed there with the church for a full year, teaching large crowds of people. He went and found the guy who had been given a mission by God, to take Jesus to the Gentiles. And that s when Luke says, It was at Antioch that the believers (in Jesus) were first called Christians. (26) Do you know what Christian means? I ve heard some people explain that a Christian is a little Christ. That s not it. It means a Christ follower, a Christ partisan. When they first called us Christians it may have been kind of a joke those people who are always going on about their Christ, like he is some kind of god, those people who are kind of weird because of their Christ. But whether or not it started as a joke, it s a name that stuck. And we kind of liked it. But here s the deal, listen guys, this is huge: It wasn t just about believing in him; it was about being like him. There was something about these Christians; not just what we believed, but how we lived, that blew their socks off. There was something about us that was weird and wonderful. I love this part. Luke says, It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians, and the very next story tells us why. Verse 27: During this time some prophets traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch. I have always been a little suspicious of guys who called themselves proohets. I think we ought to be a little suspicious. But just because some guys fake it, doesn t mean it isn t real. Sometimes God would give a message to his people through a prophet. Verse 28: One of (these prophets) them named Agabus I love name. It would be a great name for a kid, wouldn t it Alathea, Andy, Agabus, that s cool! One of these prophets named Agabus stood up in one of the meetings and predicted by the (Holy) Spirit that a great famine was coming upon the entire Roman world (The entire Roman world that s an important detail). (This was fulfilled during the reign of Claudius.) In fact, their historians tell us that there were a whole bunch of famines during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius, and a really bad one hit Israel in the years God is giving these Christians a warning, so they can get ready. Page 4 of 10

5 Now here is what it really weird in this story. Are you ready? What would you do if God told you that a famine was coming, a famine that would impact your whole world, including your town, your church, your family? I ll tell you what my first impulse might be. I d want to go down to Krogers and stock up. And then I d want make a Sam s run, and stock up some more. I d want to start thinking about how to protect me and mine; I d want to start prepping, a little. Because we kind of live in a prepper world, and most of us have a sort of prepper bent, even if we re not fanatical about it. But here is what is really weird in this story. Are you ready? Agabus (isn t that a great name!), Agabus the prophet tells them a famine is coming so, verse 29, the believers in Antioch (remember, they are called Christians now; and being a Christian isn t just about believing in Jesus, it s about being like Jesus, the believers in Antioch) decided to send relief to the brothers and sisters in Judea, everyone giving as much as they could. Well that s weird. A famine is coming, so let me help you prep. Remember, these are brand new Christians, and they don t even know their brothers and sisters in Judea. Never met them before. And I am taking my money and helping them prep, giving them as much as I can, when the famine is coming my way too?! And remember, these new Christians in Antioch were Gentiles, and the Christians they were going to help were Jews. And in their world, well, most Jews and Gentiles didn t even like each other, even when they were Christian Jews and Gentiles! Why would they do that? Because there are some things about being a Christian that these baby believers got. These are core ideas, these are basics, fundamentals. And they are just as big today as they were in Antioch almost 2000 years ago. Core idea #1: Being a Christian isn t just about believing in Christ Jesus, is about being like Christ Jesus. We are not just Christ believers, we are Christ copiers. The theologians use two big words. Page 5 of 10

6 They talk about orthodoxy, and orthopraxy. Orthodoxy is about believing the right things (and that s important); orthopraxy is about doing the right things, practicing the right things (and that is equally important). A lot of people in our world say they believe in Christ, but they make no real attempt to behave like Christ that s not Christian. A Christian, a real Christian, asks a very simple question, a lot: What would Jesus do, if he were in my place? And that s what we do. There a famine coming. It s going to touch me and mine; it s going to touch Christians in Jerusalem too. What would Jesus do? Being a Christian isn t just about believing in Christ Jesus, is about being like Christ Jesus. Core idea #2: Being a Christian isn t just about believing, it s about belonging. Listen guys: when I accept God as my Father, I get you as my brothers and sisters. Listen to the language in Acts. They heard that a famine was coming, so the believers in Antioch decided to send relief to the (literally brothers, to their) brothers and sisters in Judea. (29) To their family in Judea. When you become a Christ follower, a Christian, it comes with a family. You get to choose whether you want God to be your Father; but if you choose him, you get us. He won t let us go it alone. You cannot embrace the bridegroom while you re turning your back on his bride. One old preacher put it like this (I love this): If the church ain t your momma, God ain t your daddy. Being a Christian isn t just about believing, it s about belonging. Core idea #3: Family takes care of family. I came across this quote when I was studying last week. One guy said, When the church in the United States is pinched, the church in India must say, Ouch, that hurts! Guys, I m a Christian. Being a Christian is about a whole lot more than taking care of me and mine. This is a Christian Church. Being a Christian church is about a whole lot more than taking care of us and ours. Spiritual myopia will corrupt my life with God, spiritual myopia will corrupt our work for God. We are kingdom seekers, not empire builders. Do you buy that? When a Christian brother or sister hurts, we re supposed to feel their pain. And then, if we can, we do something about it -- because family takes care of family. Page 6 of 10

7 Guys, in a world where myopia is epidemic, Christians stand out. We live in a world obsessed with self. It s about me, and mine. I care about me, and mine, and I suppose a few of you in my little world; but I care very little about people who are not part of my little world. Well, not us. We re Christians. We take care of our physical families, and we take care of our spiritual family, we even do what we can to take care of God s kids who haven t bend their knees to him yet. If we re going to wear the name Christian, it s not enough just to believe in him, we have to be like him. There is a great preacher up in Chicago named Erwin Lutzer. He shared this story from a believer who lived in Germany during World War 2. He says, I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. We heard stories of what was happening to the Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it, because, what would anyone do to stop it? A railroad track ran behind our small church and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance and then the wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars! Week after week the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we know that we would hear the cries of the Jews en route to the death camp. Their screams tormented us. We knew the time the train was coming and when we heard the whistle blow we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more. Years have passed and no one talks about it anymore. But I can still hear the train whistle in my sleep. God forgive me; forgive all who called ourselves Christian and yet did nothing to intercede. I don t think we have ever sung our songs here to drown out the noise of their pain, literally. But sometimes, I think, we are more concerned with our rituals than with our brothers and sisters, and those who could be brothers and sisters. Sometimes, I think, we allow what happens in this room to distract us from what he calls us to do outside Page 7 of 10

8 this room. And here s what God thinks about that. James, the brother of Jesus, says, What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith (if you say you are a believer, if you say you are a Christian) but (you) don t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? (Is it enough just to believe in Christ, or do you have to be like Christ?) Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well but then you don t give that person any food or clothing. (If you have the ability to help, and don t,) What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. (James ) That s hard stuff guys. Guys, this is just one piece of why we are trying to shift directions here at Capital City. We had become a very good attractional church. We had become very good at attracting Christians to our church, and pretty good at taking care of our own, me and mine. But we were becoming too myopic. We will not hunker and bunker here at Capital City. We will do whatever we can to root out any myopia. We will do whatever we can to care for each other with as much passion as we care for ourselves. We will do whatever we can to care for Christians who are outside these walls, Christians we have never met yet. We will even do what we can to love on people outside these walls who are not Christians yet. Because that s what Jesus would do. Now, I suspect some of you may be pushing back a little. Some of you may be thinking, That all sounds pretty cool, but let s be honest, we re kind of little and the number of people who need help is really, really big. No matter what we do, we won t make a dent. Well, that s absolutely true. Even here, in this church family, there are so many brothers and sisters who are hurting, none of us can take care of them all. But I suspect every one of us can be there for one, or two, or maybe three. You are not called to be there for all of them, but you will be called to be there for one, or two inside these walls, and I suspect one, or two, or a few outside these walls. Page 8 of 10

9 And some of you may be thinking, I do see so many people I can help, and I do kind of feel a tug from God. But how do I choose who, and how, and when, and where? Well, I don t know any magic. Just choose. Do for one as you would if you could do for all. Did you hear that? Do for one as you would if you could do for all. The Jews have a saying in their Talmud; it s pretty good. It says, Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire. Just do for one as you would if you could do for all. And now the warning. What if we don t? What if we choose to persist in our spiritual myopia? Well, three things. One: We miss the blessing. We miss God s blessing. We miss the satisfaction, and the energy, and the pure joy that comes from being used by God. Two: They miss the blessing. God uses us to love on each other. When we live myopic lives they miss the blessing God wants to pour into their lives through us. Three: We build a wall between ourselves and God. Guys we can t love the Father if we re not loving on his kids. Christians: it s not just about believing in him, it s about being like him. It happens every day here at Capital City. Matt Agnew, our youth minister, challenged about 150 of our people to pray for one of our Junior or Senior High kids. And you guys are doing it. In fact some of you are doing more than just praying for them. A young man came up to me just last week and asked about one of our boys. A boy with a single mom, and limited resources. He wanted to know how he could help. Do you know how Christian that is! Last Christmas another one of our young dads asked for not 1, but 2 families his family provide Christmas for. He and his wife were teaching their kids how to defeat spiritual myopia. Do you know how Christian that is! I got a call from one of our elders Friday about a lady who used to be in this church family, in the hospital in Louisville. He wasn t calling to tell me to go see her; he called to tell me he was just Page 9 of 10

10 leaving the hospital, just keeping me informed. Do you know how Christian that is! I could go on for an hour about family taking care of family here at Capital City. But sometimes it goes way beyond these walls. This was a new report that played last week on WTVQ in Lexington, about Raymonde Jacques, one of our ladies (who has dedicated her life to helping the Haitian people.) Do you know how Christian she is! Joe Gilbert has been putting together a team to go love on and serve and share Jesus with some people in Honduras. They leave in a few weeks. They could still use some support ($). Do you know how Christian he is! We ve got a meeting next week with a group called Teach to Transform. They partner with churches and mission teams to go all over the world and work with pastors, and Christians, teaching them medical skills, ag skills, electrical skills, and Jesus. Giving them the ability to break the cycle of dependency and take care of their people. You may be hearing some more about our family partnering with them. It s not just about believing in him; it s about being like him Let s pray. Page 10 of 10