Sermon Cloud

Acts 11:19-30: "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. 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. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 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, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 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. 27 Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). 29 So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. 30 And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul."

INTRODUCTION

Up to this point we have seen the incredible advancement and expansion of the Gospel as it breaks new ground in new ways.

The Spirit promised by Jesus to the Church in Acts 1 has empowered the Church to be witnesses of Jesus starting in Jerusalem and moving into Judea, Samaria, and now we see this incredible news of what Christ has done spreading all the way to the Gentiles now in Antioch.

Up to this point there has been no purposeful pursuit of reaching the Gentiles on any large scale. The Church has just learned that God's love and grace is not exclusive to the Jews only and they are catching up and having their pride and exclusivity dealt with by the Gospel.

Old idols and allegiances have had to fall in order for the Church to live out of Christ's promise and instruction to bring His good news to the ends of the earth.

What we're seeing in this passage is a Church that is slowly being changed and transformed by the Gospel. It's being shaped and molded into the image of Christ step by step.

It was a fairly big step for the Church to break into new territory by traveling to Samaria and preaching the Gospel in its capital city. Yet even Samaritans were cousins of the Jews and were considered half-breeds. They had ties to the Jews. They believed in the God of the Bible and also a coming Messiah.

Antioch, on the other hand, was pagan through and through. It had a good sized population of Jews which lived there, but these Jews were Hellenized which meant they thought, spoke, and acted more like Greeks than they did Jews. Plus, the city was incredibly diverse and boasted in its immigration policy which drew Jews, Greeks, Romans, Africans, and Asians to the city and offered them full citizenship.

It was a cultural mix of all types and kinds of religious and philosophical backgrounds. Many of these groups had nothing in common other than they wanted to live in what was called the "Queen of the East," which was the beautiful city named Antioch.

The weather, fashion, beauty, money, and laid-back lifestyle of Antioch was a powerful incentive for people to move there. It was expensive to live there, but people were willing to make the sacrifice in moving there because they wanted a nice life. Sound familiar?

What made Antioch so attractive also bred a particular form of cultural idols. Prosperity, materialism, beauty, sexuality and intellectual pride mixed with pagan practices and "mystery religions" promised its citizens that they could be connected to a divine "kurios" that would grant them immortality and joy.

Yet lurking underneath all the beauty there was an ugliness of racial and cultural pride, brokenness and despair, and a sense that at any moment this beautiful life would come crashing down all around them.

Simply put, the city needed the Gospel. She was full of fear, full of pride, and living a façade of having it all together and looking for the next physical or mystical experience to validate them. Everyone was smiling, but underneath they were rotting away.

So here we are in our own little Antioch called San Diego. Like Antioch, we're not the largest in the Californian Empire, but we're the most beautiful and have many of the same pleasures and pains of Antioch.

We're racially diverse, spiritually pluralistic, and many of us are leveraged to the hilt trying to keep this beautiful life propped up. All the while we're a couple paychecks away from losing our overpriced homes to foreclosure. We smile and are polite to one another, yet people are afraid to get too close, open up, or give their lives away.

People don't want to commit in our city for fear of something better coming along. We're fearful, prideful, and holding on to our paradise by our fingernails.

In Antioch the Gospel breaks in, and in San Diego 2,000 years later we're coming to grips with this beautiful life. This kind of slavery is more treacherous than physical shackles because the chains are spiritual and unseen.

The Gospel Peter preached has come to a place where an entirely new set of questions and issues have to be dealt with. To proclaim Jesus as the Christ would have made no sense.

Pagans didn't have a category for a promised Messiah that was fulfilling Israel's history and Scriptures. All they had to go on was an idea of the "kurios" (lord) who promised them safety and salvation if only they would bow down.

So we see a new mission breakthrough in a creative way that contextualizes the Gospel so those in Antioch could understand who Jesus was and what He's promised.

We listen to this story to take our cues as to how we're going to reach our own Antioch. This passage teaches us what it's going to take for a people who are fearful, prideful, and selfish to be changed by the Gospel.

But first, these new Christians full of fear, pride, and selfishness needed to be transformed by the Gospel into people of courage, humility, and generosity so that they would have the resources to reach these true "others" for Christ.

Let's learn how we're to go out, open up, and give away in response to the Gospel for the sake of our beautiful city.

I. The Gospel gives you the courage to go out (proclamation)

Verses 19-21: "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. 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. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord."

The persecution which broke out after Stephen's murder in chapter 8 forced our early brothers and sisters to travel all the way to Antioch to find safety.

They didn't choose to be scattered, yet God used this persecution to keep His people from gathering in a holy huddle and becoming ingrown. They were essentially launched into this missionary life and land in Antioch, a place very foreign to them.

As the Gospel was still working in the lives of the early Church they were trying to figure out what it all meant for the Gospel to go out. The story of the Ethiopian treasurer and the Centurion Cornelius may have not quite sunk in since they were isolated incidents. Peter had just figured out in chapter 10 and 11 that the Gospel truly was meant for everyone and he was the leader and spokesman of the Church!

My favorite line in this first passage is, "But there were some of them..." This is such a great introduction to these new missional pacesetters that were mavericks as they broke from just preaching to the Jews and went to the Greeks to call them to Jesus.

They had courage. They had the heart and passion to get past their fear and pride to move into uncomfortable territory for the sake of people different than they were.

And like this group of mavericks, perhaps you've moved to San Diego because your job or school caused you to be scattered. All scattered means is to be dispersed. You have been dispersed to San Diego from somewhere else that may be far more comfortable to you.

You may have left family and friends that you've known for years and yet here you are. Scattered by circumstance, scattered by passion, and whatever else has brought you to this beautiful city.

This passage teaches you that it makes no difference what the circumstances are for your being here, the fact is you are here and now you're called to become a maverick and reach out. You are to be the "But there were some of them..." people for your King. To bring His good news that He's won a victory they could not win. He's what is real in their life of façade. He's the answer to the longing of their heart.

What keeps you from doing this? I'll tell you why many of us don't do this. It's because of fear and because of pride.

Our fear keeps us from going out to others who are different because we're not sure how they're going to respond to us. We're afraid they'll reject us.

Our pride keeps us from going out because ultimately we don't want to look bad.

The only way we'll go out into this city like these mavericks did is if we have what they had.

Don't you see, they had the "Lord," the "kurios." Not some mystery religion but a real King, a real Lord. But instead of this King coming and showing off His royal robes and pushing His royalty on everyone, this King first comes as a servant.

He was faced with coming to the ultimate "others" when came into this world. He went out to them and faced rejection not only from those who He came to love and serve, but the ultimate rejection. On the cross, the Father turned His face from His one and only perfect Son and caused Jesus to cry out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" Jesus faced rejection so that we could never be rejected by the One who really matters.

Only when you grasp this and believe it will you have the courage to go out and face your fear of rejection from what others think.

Jesus dealt with pride by making Himself look bad to the entire universe so that we could be made beautiful. He took on the ugliness of the world so that we don't have to serve the "kurios" of others' opinions.

Caesar declared peace in his gospel to them in 47 BC. Only when other "kurios" are demoted will we be able to sense the power of the true "Kurios" and go out on His behalf.

Jesus was sent to us and instead of hiding from those different from Him (sinners vs. His sinless self) He sought them out. Why? Because He understood that His Father's love was so large that it was going to swallow up the distance between Him and those who were lost.

It is only when we understand that we were lost that we'll have the power and courage to go out and find others.

How are we doing this at Kaleo? We tithe 10% of our general offering to church planting. We're involved in Acts 29, a national and international church planting movement that is breaking into cities all over the world to bring the Gospel to needful people. We're getting together with pastors from all over the city and various denominations so that we can pray and labor together to see our little Antioch shaped into a truly beautiful city.

How can you participate? By helping us plant churches. By giving to our planting fund. By coming along side of us and laboring with us in prayer and deed to see this city transformed.

II. The Gospel gives you the humility to open up (identification)

Verses 22-26: "The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 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, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 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."

The news of the Gospel breaking into Greek territory reached the Church. Knowing that the Greeks didn't have a Jewish worldview or history, they sent Barnabas to Antioch to confirm them in the faith and to encourage them. The Church wanted to send one of their own to make sure they understood the Gospel and the implications on their lives.

Barnabas was the perfect man for the job. We're told Barnabas had the largest heart of all the early leaders. His very name meant "son of encouragement" and this is exactly what he did when he arrived.

Barnabas didn't come to evangelize necessarily, and he didn't come to teach necessarily. His gift was different than those two. Barnabas was gifted at affirming, supporting and cheering on new believers.

We see that he came and was overjoyed at the evidence of grace he found. They were living out of the Gospel toward each other. The word "exhort" in the Greek is parakaleo which means to come alongside.

He didn't just come and tell them to watch what he did, or to do the right thing, he basically came alongside of them to help them walk with Christ. This is what encouragers do, they come alongside and walk in your shoes and empathize with you.

This was the startling mark of the early Church. It was incredibly inclusive:

"A fourth reason for Christianity's success is to be found in its inclusiveness. More than any of its competitors it attracted all races and classes...Judaism never quite escaped from its racial bonds...Christianity however glorified in its appeal to Jew and Gentile, Greek and barbarian. The philosophies never really won the allegiance of the masses...they appealed primarily to the educated...Christianity, however...drew the lowly and unlettered...yet also developed a philosophy which commanded respect of many of the learned...Christianity, too, was for both sexes, whereas two of its main rivals were primarily for men. The church welcomed rich and poor. In contrast with it, the mystery cults were usually for people of means: initiation to them was expensive...No other religion took in so many groups and strata of society...The query must be raised of why this comprehensiveness came to be. It was not in Judaism. Why did it appear in Christianity?"
-Kenneth Scott Latourette, Yale Proffessor

This is what the new believers needed. They needed someone who would open up his life and let them in. They needed someone to come alongside of them.

And this is what Kaleo needs. It needs others to parakaleo each other by opening up their lives and encouraging each other in ways that show off the Gospel. Most of our problems are irritated because we don't have encouragers like Barnabas in our lives.

We should be a people who look outside of ourselves and look around us to notice and pursue people who need to be encouraged. We are to all encourage each other as part of our life together.

The result of Barnabas' encouragement was an expansion of the Church. The Church exploded again and many more were brought into the family. Barnabas sees the need to care for them and so he travels to Tarsus to get Saul (Paul) to bring back and help him. Barnabas could have simply settled in his power and built his own kingdom but instead he goes out to find someone to help.

Barnabas demonstrates what it looks like to open up and let your pride die so that Jesus is made to look really good.

What keeps us from encouraging others? What stops us?

Why aren't you willing to open up? Because your pride keeps you from being transparent and your selfishness keeps you from wanting to be committed to each other.

You don't want to give the time and you don't want to open up and you'll never give yourself away and open up unless you see something.

In John chapter 15 Jesus tells His disciples that they're not just His servants but His friends. He's was willing to open Himself up to them.

How is Jesus your ultimate friend?

The first is vulnerability. The greatest act of vulnerability is to open your arms to somebody. When you open your arms to embrace someone you're vulnerable to getting stabbed or harmed, you can be killed. Yet Jesus' arms on the cross are not only open, they're nailed open to you. How much more vulnerable could you possibly want Him to be? It was ultimate openness. He opened up His arms and at the hands of those who He was willing to welcome in, they opened up His veins and He proved His willingness to let someone in by pouring Himself out.

Even though Jesus knew in the Garden of Gethsemane that He was going to die for His friends, He still went to the cross. He didn't let down His friends even though they let Him down.

Only when you see that Jesus was the ultimate friend for you will you have the security to be transparent and the humility to be committed.

The Gospel changes us by dealing with our fear of failure. Jesus is our ultimate success and therefore we can never fail.

Jesus is our ultimate beauty and therefore we can let others see us.

How are we doing this at Kaleo? Missional Communities, Gospel Discipleship groups, and women's and men's ministries.

How can you participate? Get involved in these communities. Open up your life to them so that they will let you in.

III. The Gospel enriches you to give away (application)

Verses 27-30: "Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). 29 So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. 30 And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul."

The result of the Gospel breaking into their lives and being encouraged and strengthened in the faith was a generosity that allowed these new Christians to give away what they had.

This is the kind of generosity we're called to in our city for our church.

Why are we selfish? Because we haven't yet grasped the selfless nature of our God who gave Himself away so that we could have everything we need. If we believed this, we'd respond in kind.

The Gospel changes us by dealing with our fear of losing control.

Jesus became poor that we might become rich in everything that really matters.

Jesus causes us to loosen our grip on things we have idolized.

The reason we won't give away is because we are poverty stricken with Gospel-anemia. We need to draw from the treasure of the Gospel to have the resources to give to others. We can't just will this into existence because we don't have the resources on our own without Christ.

Jesus deals with our fear of being taken advantage of as He was taken advantage of on our behalf. Can you imagine Jesus telling the Father, "I can't give my life away because they might take advantage of me?" Instead Jesus understands that the point of His coming into the world was to be taken advantage of. So much so that they took something of greater value than time and money; they took His life.

Jesus gave away His life so that we can live a life of giving away.

There is an incredible story about Alexander the Great. He had a general who was about to get married. He came to Alexander and told him the news and also said that he needed money for the dowry and to pay for the wedding. Alexander said, "Sure, how much do you need?" The general asked for an enormous sum of money, and those watching were stunned by the amount. Instead of Alexander getting a grimace on his face, he got this radiant look and lit up. With incredible delight he said to the man, "Of course, go to my treasurer and he'll give you all that you've asked for." Those watching came up to him afterwards and asked, "Why did you give him so much money, and why were you delighted to do it?" Alexander responded with a smile and said, "This man has done me a great honor. By asking for such a ridiculous sum, he shows that he believes that I am fabulously wealthy and incredibly generous."

Only when we believe God has been fabulously wealthy and incredibly generous to us will we have the resources to give away. This is what the Gospel does! It deals with our poverty.

How are we doing this at Kaleo? Deacon fund, giving in general, etc.

How can you participate? Helping the various ministries to reach out. Giving away your time, energy, and financial resources like the early Church did.