[Introduction] The First Gentile Church Acts 11:19-30; 12:24-13:3 9 August 2009 HPC Evening Yesterday we heard some great talks from Jim Ramsey on how we can mature and grow as Christians and as a church. He challenged us to think creatively on how we can change our current situation to meet the community in this city. If you weren t there, at supper maybe ask someone who was there to share what they learnt. Tonight we ll be seeing how the very first church also creatively met the challenges of a changing community. Very similar principles for the 1st century as well as the 21st century. [Opening pray] As we study Acts, we re learning about the very start of the global Christian movement and here, from tonight s passage, is our mother church, the first Gentile Church. Some questions we will answer include - who founded the church? Where had they come from? What did they do in their church life? What sort of people were they? Let s take a close look at these passages and learn the characteristics of this vibrant multi-cultural church, so that we can imitate and follow this model too. The Antioch Church is very significant in Acts. It started with those scattered Christians reaching the Gentiles in the big city, and the church grew impressively and became the gateway to the ends of the earth. Tonight s passage tells us how the Antioch Church begins and there are three main characteristics: 1) Grass-roots movement in a big city 2) Godly leadership 3) Partnership and Sending [Context] Before we go into each one, let s have look at the context in which the first gentile church was born. The beginning two verses set the context. In v. 19-21, it says, Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lordʼs hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. We ve seen, in previous chapters, that the Jewish authority was hostile towards the church. After the death of Stephen, the young church in Jerusalem dispersed. In 8:1, On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered, throughout Judea and Samaria. First, Philip, and then Peter, carried the seed of the gospel to new soil - Philip to the Ethiopian Eunuch, Peter to Cornelius household. Remember in ch. 10 and the first part of ch. 11, Cornelius conversion story is repeated three times. Why is it so important? Because it really is the prelude to the planting of the church at Antioch. 1
The believers, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, made their way further and further into Gentile lands. Some went even further, to Antioch, the capital of the Roman province of Syria and the third largest city in the Roman world, after Rome and Alexandria. Think about if Australia would ever be the dominant country in the world, after Sydney and Melbourne, Brisbane would be the third dominant city, hard to imagine!! Unlike Jerusalem, Antioch was a cosmopolitan, secularised city, a center of Hellenistic culture and a commercial hub. It was probably 20 times bigger than Jerusalem. It had about 18 ethnic people groups dwelling within the city, predominantly pagan and had a bad reputation for sexual immorality as a result of some of the Greek and Asian religious cults that thrived there. So this is the environment from which the first gentile church was born. Now let s look at the first characteristic of the church - Grass-roots movement in a big city. Read v. 19 again, you will see the movement really was started by some unnamed scattered believers. Some of them from Cyprus and Cyrene brought the good news to those Greek-speaking Gentiles. The Lord chose these people to accomplish His sovereign purpose. This is a grass-roots movement! No Church will ever become a missionary church unless people at the grass-roots level are concerned with outreach to the outside world. It s important to see that before the church launches its mission further into gentile territory, everyone is involved in grass-roots personal outreach. Every unnamed member was involved. They kept telling people the good news about the Lord Jesus. So the Lordʼs hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. (v.21) Do you know what the problem is with a lighthouse? It illuminates distant water but the area around its base is plunged in darkness. In similar ways, some churches have problems with their crosscultural mission strategies. They support people overseas but ignore the mission field at their doorsteps. In one sense, being involved in overseas mission can be easier. Just allocate a major chunk of money to support people overseas and pray every so often for them. Being involved in local mission is much harder. It requires all the resources we have, not just money, not just prayer, but time and energy. Everyone needs to get out to meet your neighbours in the community. It requires a lifestyle change. This requires a grass-roots movement. Everyone needs to recognise they are missionaries! The church can be a major overseas mission sponsor but still be an inward looking narrow-minded church, why? Because not everyone sitting on the pew is moving. Yesterday at the Church Day Away, Jim Ramsay said that when members of the church come into church, instead of looking for their usual seats, they look for places to sit to meet visitors and strangers, that s when the church becomes a true missionary church. Doing mission requires firstly that everyone is passionately committed to evangelism locally, just like these men of Cyprus and Cyrene. Just living out a Christian life is your personal witness. Yesterday, we talked about how we don t have to remember TWTL before we go out to talk to people. Sharing our faith in a natural, genuine way is the best way to witness for the Lord. Why does the first gentile church need to be planted in a big city? Why not in a small village in the bush? Does anyone know of Tim Keller s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NY? Tim Keller is big on church planting in big cities, and RPC is a successful example. At his vision campaign several years ago, Keller preached from this same passage on why plant churches in big cities. He said that the first 2
important reason is simple - people in big cities are open to new ideas. Breaking through cultural barriers with the gospel is always easier in an urban setting like Antioch, because people who live in big cities are already less attached to their traditional roots than their contemporaries in rural communities. The pluralism of the city invites more open-mindedness as it exposes people to different cultures and challenges their preconceived ideas. The Jews thought they knew the Torah well enough yet were blinded by their false religious understanding, so they were the hardest to reach. As we look at our own situation, this rings true. Most Anglo -Australians consider Australia to be a Christian country yet most don t have a personal relationship with Jesus. But when people come from overseas, they are open to new ideas. There are huge opportunities here in Hurstville as you can see so many new visitors each Sunday, and most of them are Internationals. In a big city, the gospel transforms relationships. The disciples were first called Christians in this Antioch church (v. 26). This is how the world sees, if you re from Scotland, you must be a presbyterian; England, an Anglican; Italy, a Roman Catholic; Greece, a Greek Orthodox. In the eyes of the world, religion is segregated by ethnicity and geography. People from different groups don t cross the boundary. But look at Antioch - people from different backgrounds were converted, then they mingled together, sharing everything. How could this happen? When Barnabas was sent by the Jerusalem church, he had the job to check out what was going on there. It was unbelievable. Ancient cites have city walls to protect themselves from outsider s invasion. What happened in Antioch was that because so many different ethnic groups lived in the same city and they couldn t live peacefully with each other, walls even within the city wall were built to protect against other ethnic groups. So when people became Christians, they crossed the wall to worship together. And that s how they get their name - Christian, a new name, a general name to describe this new group of people who have a new common identity. Many churches today still face a trap here. We tend to build a big church and run all kinds of programs to fill up the pews. So the church becomes a sub-cultural group, just like other different groups in our neighbourhood. When we were door knocking during the mission week, I met a Greek guy, very intelligent. He was sick of the Greek Orthodox Church and thought it was too authoritative. He wanted the freedom to believe whatever. As we chatted, I shared with him the idea of being free in Christ and he thought that was a good idea. But when I invited him to come to our church, he said that it was the last thing he would do. Being Greek means being a Greek Orthodox. It doesn t matter what you truly believe. Going to other churches means you ve betrayed your family. Do you see the deep segregation here? Even though we don t have a physical wall here in Sydney, there seems to be a strong invisible wall separating people who live in Hurstville, Ashfield, Auburn, Campsie, Eastern suburbs, and Sutherland Shire. Churched in a big city have the potential to transform relationship, and change people s life. Our job is not to build a big church with thousands of people attending yet who have no contact with the world outside the church wall. Our job is to get out and transform the community, being light and salt. Have you seen this happen in HPC? One old Chinese lady came to our church several months ago wanting to learn English and do craft, so she joined the craft group. One day she came to me and asked, At the group people always bring food for morning tea, do I have to pay for that? For people outside the church, sharing free food with strangers is a very strange concept. Can you see the impact? In a big city where people are open to new ideas, when we re willing to meet these different people, we ll naturally share our Christian lifestyle, and this is a very powerful way to witness. All of us here can do it. This is a grass-roots movement. 3
The second characteristic - godly leadership. When Barnabas was sent by the Jerusalem Church to find out what happened at Antioch, in v. 23, it says, When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. The rapid growing church in Antioch needed more godly leaders. As the first gentile church it was very different from the church at Jerusalem. The number of converted Gentiles may well have exceeded the number of Christian Jews in Jerusalem. This was the first congregation which was predominantly Gentile in origin. They needed good leaders. The Jerusalem Church was wise to send Barnabas, he was called son of encouragement, and it was true that he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. Notice how significant it is when Luke uses this phrase to describe a person. Barnabas saw the evidence of the grace of God at Antioch. Because the division between the Jews and the Gentiles was so deep at that time, it isn t hard to imagine how different this first Gentile church could have been. When we sometimes see new international believers being part of our fellowship, we often can be critical in terms of their old lifestyles and bad habits. Think about the Antioch church when Barnabas arrived, he might see husbands sitting next to their wives, there might not be any hymns but instead they dance. How would he react? How would you react? Instead of criticizing these unusual nontraditional behaviours at the new church, Barnabas saw God s grace, he saw lives changed from pagan immorality to Christian holiness. Whether circumcised or not, he recognized this was the grace of God at work. So he encouraged them all to remain true with all their hearts. A personal relationship with the Lord is what matters. A faith from the heart is what matters. A life transformed is what matters. As we continue to read, we see the goodness and generosity of Barnabas expressed in further pastoral wisdom. In v. 25-26, Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. We last heard of Saul in 9:30, when he went back to Tarsus his hometown (22:3). Apparently, Barnabas recognized his own inadequacy to cope with the demands of a growing church and the need to bring another leader into the church, so he traveled a considerable distance to Tarsus. Barnabas and Saul teamed up for a whole year in Antioch. In this way, Luke also brings Paul ( in 13:9, Saul was also called Paul) into the scene as he will replace Peter as the main character for the rest of the Acts. Another thing about Barnabas is that he is a humble servant who doesn t focus on his own status. Notice that Barnabas here ranks higher than Paul as his name comes first. But later in ch. 15, at the Council at Jerusalem, he is listed after Paul by Luke. When Barnabas realized the task was too big that he needed capable help, he probably also realized that Paul was more talented and educated than himself. By getting Paul, he was seriously jeopardizing his own position in leadership and prominence. But for the sake of the gospel, Barnabas had no desire to gain his own status at the church. 4
Thirdly, partnership and sending The Antioch Church never saw herself as an independent entity. The church, under the leadership of Barnabas and Paul, were generous towards others. We are told in v. 28, one of the prophets God sent to the church, named Agabus, prophesied that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world (v. 28). So, the disciples each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. (v.29-30) The Antioch church has a missionary attitude in her heart. The result is partnership in mission. When the mother church in Jerusalem has need, this newly planted church steps in and gives what they have to support the mother church. One important thing here we need to emphasize is the body of Christ mentality. The church isn t just an organization, but a supernatural organism. When one member of the church is in pain, others feel the pain as well. The Christians at Antioch couldn t sit still in a secure position when they saw their mother church lacked basic supplies to cover their daily needs. At the recent GA, on Wednesday night, there was an event called The Bush Comes to the City. We all know that many presbyterian churches in the country are having a hard time at the moment because of the long drought. They ve lost a lot of people in many congregations as people can t survive in a harsh climate so they ve moved to the city. The needs are out there, what are we going to do? At the night, many ministers and elders shared this vision and now they are seeking their own churches to send out resources to help our country churches - money, preachers, even teams of people. It was an encouraging night. As I was talking to a minister during the GA, I saw he was so excited by this vision, and he told me that he already started to work with several churches in the same area, planning to adopt a country church, to regularly send a preacher and they are even thinking about sending a team to help with some special programs at Christmas or Easter. The mission the Antioch church did had a two-way-direction. At the same time that they were trying to help out the mother church, they also sent missionaries out to far countries. Further more, they were sending the best out. Imagine if the session decides next month that HPC will send both Kevin and I as well as all our Bible study leaders out to teach, some in country churches, some to go overseas, for six months. What do you think about this idea?! The young Antioch church was determined to send out their best - Barnabas and Paul. At the end of ch.12, after Barnabas and Paul returned from Jerusalem, they caught a vision - the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. (3:2-3) The Spirit directed Barnabas and Saul to be set apart for reaching the lost. But they were the top leaders of the church, what is the church going to do if all the sudden they lost both their ministers? The young church must have had a lot of needs and needed more staff to cover these. But when God calls, we must release even those we consider the most important and valued persons. That s how important mission is. Sometimes God calls the most brilliant among the team members to go. We might say, What a waste! Their audience will be uneducated, backward people. Why should the best go to them? But this is what God wants. How can our church today catch this vision? Is our church willing to give up her best? 5
I met a couple at SMBC. The husband was a PhD student, a very smart guy, ranked No. 1 in NSW when he graduated from SMBC. Now he and his wife and son, are working among a small group of people in a village in India, translating the Bible. Last year, when we were preaching through Mark, they were also translating Mark. So I got the chance to talk about Mark a lot through blogging. I am greatly encouraged by what they are doing. [Conclusion] At the end of ch. 12, the young, newly established, first Gentile church was ready to send out Christians into the world. Luke now is ready to shift the focus to Paul, who will spearhead the gentile mission. The rest of Acts covers his story. So what are three lessons that we ve learnt tonight as we look at the first Gentile Church? And what characteristics can we imitate as we do mission here in Hurstville? 1) a grass-roots movement - everyone is involved. This is not just the job for paid-ministers or elders or leaders, ALL of us has a part just by being Christians in our families, neighbourhood and work places. 2) Godly leadership - always encouraging with God s word and prayer under God s grace. Barnabas is a good example for us to follow. How can we encourage those in our church? Who is someone you can give a word of encouragement to this week? 3) Don t have an inward vision, look out, partner with those in need and step out of our comfort zone. Be willing to give away our best to serve God in the most needy places. 6