JUN 12 2016 | Acts 11

Sea Change Church · "Acts 11" · Adam Stadtmiller · June 12, 2016
Acts 11
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

God's Word in the book of Philippians tells us that there's a time coming when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of Almighty God. We look forward to that time and we have a head start in inviting others as well. This morning text from Acts chapter 11 declares that we were first called Christians, little Christs, if you were, Christ followers, in Antioch.

And so we're reading that text and may I simply say also there are Christians, even as we read about persecution in the first century, there are Christians in Syria, in Antioch today, that are paying the price for confessing Jesus Christ is Lord. And part of my heart's desire is we might not only hear the Lord's Word as Pastor Adam's blessed, but that we might in this week to come remember the people in Syria and pray God's special grace and protection on them.

We love this corner. We love our neighborhoods. We love the water. But God's love is throughout his creation. Let's remember Syria. May we do that as we look ahead. Acts chapter 11, verses 19 and following. 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 speaking to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. Now news of this reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 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. And then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. When he found him, he brought him to Antioch. And so for a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. And the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

May God bless his word by his spirit today. Pastor Adam, bless you. Great. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Jim. Well, good. Hey, if you have your iPhones or your Bibles, open up to Acts chapter 11. Here we are again in this amazing story of an expanding church. Jesus, as you know, has left the scene in Matthew 28 and in Acts chapter 1. And he ascends into heaven and he leaves this ragtag group of disciples.

Unlearned men, as many would say, but with hearts full of the gospel. And it shows what you can do without a lot of talent, but with a lot of heart. And Peter and John and Barnabas is the story of these leaders of the church that begin to take that seed, that kernel of the gospel that Jesus talks about. And they begin to plant it and begin to see what Jesus talked about when he says you plant a seed in fertile soil.

There begins to be an expansion and the gospel begins to increase a hundredfold. Is that not what Jesus said? That the gospel, that little seed that you plant, a seed can plant, can go a hundredfold. Think about that. Think about as I drive up to 395, up to Mammoth, and you see the different orchards that are there. And somebody planted one seed, that little sprout, but that one tree sometimes.

I know my neighbor had a plum tree, and I hate plums. Anybody raise your hand if you like a plum? Really? There's a plum contingent I didn't even know about? It's like the cat people. I didn't know there's people that like cats either. I hate plums. Ah, the skin. And it's like a pear skin on the roof of your mouth. You've got to peel a pear, by the way.

Right? You get pear skin. No? Am I the only one that gets pear skin in my mouth? It's like, ah. All right, well, I'm barking up the wrong tree here. See what I did there, barking up the wrong tree? Orchard that one little seed is planted. I remember my neighbor had these plums, and she had so many plums. A plum tree can be so prolific. I mean, seriously.

And she would bring me a box of plums every spring, and I'd be like, thank you. These are awesome, and they're going to rot on my kitchen doorstep because I'm not going to eat them. No, I would go give them away at church. I'd tithe them to the church. I actually had a season where I didn't plant this year, where my tomato garden was going so well.

I was going full Hebrew, and I was tithing off my tomato plants. Like the first 10%, I would go with the Israeli condition, you know, of the Old Testament. I'd bring them to church and tithe, and I felt really good about that. So nonetheless. So if you have gardens, bring them to me, and I'll eat them. But exponential growth, that you plant a seed.

And I want to say, you know, all God says to you is dig a hole and plant a seed. Dig a hole and plant a seed. And that he causes it. Who does it? The scripture says, who causes that to grow? It says we water. Paul says I water, and somebody tends. But the Lord causes it to grow. And I want to say, where are you planting the gospel seed? Actually, let me just make it even more simple.

Where are you taking the seed of God's love, the seed of Christ's love, and just planting it? Are you planting it on your street corner? Are you planting it in the places you go on a regular basis? All God is asking you to do is get a shovel and plant a seed. And then watch what he does. Come back, water it, tend it. I mean, Jesus talks about these all the time.

And this is what is happening with the first church. They're excited about the message of Jesus. I had to ask myself as I read through it again, and I saw the excitement of these believers just going out. They had to share what was on their hearts. And it is so easy when you're in the business of church to lose the fresh excitement of the gospel.

I don't know if you know what I mean. But remember when you, or maybe you haven't accepted Christ, but some of you have a long time ago. And you remember that that first time where all of a sudden your life was different. These believers were captivated by the gospel. And I had to ask myself, like, how do I get that back? A lot of it comes from knowing God myself and taking time to dig that seed in my own heart.

To make some time every day. To spend some time in the gospel. To renew what God is doing in our lives. You know, oftentimes the best fuel for the spreading of the gospel is to know what God is doing in your life. And to recognize him in the midst of everything. And what we see here in this scripture is that these believers are under persecution.

Now Stephen, as we remember back in chapter 7, 6 or 7, somewhere back there, was martyred for the faith. He gives this talk in front of the council of Jerusalem. And begins to share about God's message that had come through the Jewish leaders. And then he tells the Jewish leaders, but you have turned your back on the prophets. He says some very hard things.

You've turned your back on God's Messiah. And it says that they gnash their teeth at him. And they end up stoning him. And who stands there and accepts this and receives it? It's Saul. Whose name ends up being Paul. Paul is now back in the story. It's years later. But he has accepted the gospel himself because Jesus comes. And after the persecution, where Stephen was killed, more persecution came onto the church.

And the church began to be scattered. And hear what's so interesting. It's what those believers do when they face persecution. They redeem their persecution. They redeem their suffering. And one of the things I would ask, and for today, is what do you do when persecution comes your way? What's your go-to? Do you know those people? You know, there are those people, right, that have this amazing ability.

You see them on 60 Minutes every week if you watch 60 Minutes. I watch 60 Minutes. I've been watching it since I was a kid. Remember when I was a kid, I'd sneak out behind the couch. And my parents would put me to bed at like 8. Or was it not at 7, I guess? You put me to bed pretty early, didn't you? And I'd sneak out and watch 60 Minutes. It was captivating.

My 8-year-old loves 60 Minutes, and the third story is always like this uplifting story, you know? So I let them watch the third story of what's happening. But we see these stories oftentimes of people that in the midst of amazing struggles and challenges in their lives are able to overcome those. What is that about those people? Perhaps you saw Bethany Hamilton, the surfer who had lost her arm as a young child.

You know, how she has overcome that surfing disability to get fourth. She got fourth at the Tavarua contest in Fiji in like 10-foot waves last week with one arm against the greatest women surfers in the world, fourth place. She has not let it stop her. She got attacked by a shark and jumped back in the water. Now, I don't know if that's foolish or brave or courageous or whatever, but she has redeemed her suffering.

She's redeemed the things. She's taken the struggles in her life and turned them for good. And is that not the message of the gospel? The message of the gospel is that Jesus died. There was a persecution, but because of his death, what do we get? We receive heaven. And the kingdom expands because of these hard times. Now, no one wants hard times, but hard times will come.

The other day, I was surfing with my daughter, Lucy, and she says, Dad, surf. And we're paddling out, and I drop in on the wave, and she'll stand up. She can surf her own on the little ones, but I'll be on my belly, and she will stand up or be in the front of the wave and stand up on the board as I can on my belly. And we're pretty good-sized waves.

The other day, we did it, and she's sitting on my head. And I'm like, Lucy, please stand up. So she gets up. Her head is on my face, and I'm like this. You know, it's like a five-foot wave. She says, Dad, surfing is so hard. And you know what came out of my mouth? And it's actually true, and it goes back to Scott Peck's book, The Road Less Traveled.

Anybody know what the first sentence of that book is? Life is difficult. And life is difficult. It's also joyous if we choose to see it. But I said to her, life is hard, and sometimes we have to overcome those things. And a guy paddled next to me. He goes, that's the best thing I've heard in a month. And I was like, oh, thanks so much. You should tweet it.

No, I'm just kidding. What do you do when persecution comes? Don't you want to be that person that when hard times come? It's hard to do that. Is it a special gene? I think the scripture says we all have the ability to do that. And this is what the world is looking for. People who, in the midst of great suffering, have great victory. That have the ability of David.

That have the ability to look upon their sufferings and have it propel them to the expansion of God in their life and peace in their life. And I've got to say, it's not easy. And I don't think it's easy for them. But I think that they make a choice. So today I would ask this. Can we take a lesson and an example from these believers who were scattered now because of a great persecution, not only by the Jewish believers at the time in that church, but also by the Romans that was coming.

There was another persecution that the Christians were scattered. Let's look at verse 19. Verse 19 says this. Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. Now Antioch is north. It is a Gentile area that is north of Jerusalem. Now if you look at the scriptures, what you'll notice is that the majority of the epistles are written to Gentile churches, meaning non-Jewish believers.

Now obviously there was a group like Peter and others that were going to the Jewish world. So there was a certain group of people that God sent Jews to go and reach his people. And the Jews are God's chosen people. And they will continue to be so. But God also has a heart that he made the Jews Jewish because as we found in Genesis 12 last week, that Abraham was a Gentile.

He was in the Midian running around and God made him a Jew, right? There was no Jews before Abraham. He made him a Jew from a Gentile. And he made him that that he might put his message in one people's heart that that might expand to all people. Because he says, I will separate you, but then this message of salvation will go to all nations. That we are living in an, God has an expansive understanding.

I want to say, when was the last time your life expanded? The margin of the gospel in your life expanded. That it expanded a little bit further. Or has there been a static? And I find that I can get easily get into this static area where, you know, God happens at church. God happens at the dinner table. But I don't often think about, hey, where can I take this next?

You know, the believers here, we're not just investing in those that were near them. But like, what is the next stop on the gospel tour? Where can I expound the boundaries of God's margin in my life? I have a friend of mine here that we go to the lot. And we go have coffee at the lot. And he likes that. And I think about, this is the place that I haven't spent a lot of time at.

I want to go sit there and maybe eat. They have really good blueberry pancakes, by the way. So I go there. Maybe that's a place where the kingdom is expanding or my daughter's school. But where can those boundaries be pushed out? You know how easy it is? Just plant a seed. You go and you plant a seed. And that's what these believers do. But it says, but those who had been scattered by what?

By the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed, traveled to these different places. But they were only sharing it among the Jews. So they were going to these different areas. And they were sharing it amongst the Jews only. Here's why, if you look at your notes, back to that idea of persecution. It says that the persecution led to the spreading of the gospel.

They were a people that were able to redeem their persecution and their suffering. Let me say, God is in the business of redeeming your suffering. Whatever you're going through, he wants to redeem it. He has a glorious plan for it. And he wants you to get on board and take a moment to get outside of thinking only about ourselves. And we have a tendency to do that when things are hard, right?

Because when we have suffering, as I learned in David's class on Tuesday night, suffering often causes adrenaline. We get fear. Fear makes us antisocial. Adrenaline causes us to go inward. And so it is a natural way, because it is a fight or a flight thing, that God has created us because there is a self-preservation thing. And that is a very healthy thing.

But understanding that that is happening and being able to do things, like we learned on Tuesday night, to be able to turn that inside out. Because as we begin to give in to fear, as you begin to give in to suffering, when you begin to give in to the storyline that you write, and we are so good at writing bad storylines for our life. Aren't 80% at least of the storylines you write for your life negative?

I don't know. Maybe they aren't for you. But for me, they are. This is going to happen. That will happen. You know, a daughter gets a low grade on a test, and all of a sudden, she's never going to college. And I'm a prolific storyline writer when it comes to the things I fear. But what does it mean to take a step back and to realize that we have a God whose hand is with us, and he wants to take whatever you've gone through, as it says in Romans, and I say this all the time, 8, 28, and 29, to cause all things to work together for your good, for those that love God and are called according to whose purpose?

His purpose. Now, I'm going to drill that into my mind, and as I preach to myself, I'm going to preach to you, that it's never your purpose. And as soon as we get onto our purpose, we're outside of his purpose. It's not, you know, all about you. And I think that in the Christian world, it's really good. We'll sell a lot of books if we make it all about you.

The more we make the gospel all about you and your individual story and all the suffering that are the good things and about you, the more we get the focus off of God, although it sells, because the original temptation is make the story of God about you. God says he wants to redeem wherever you are. And so back to that idea, these people were scattered, but they said, as we scatter, we're going to proclaim the message.

We're going to do something. We're going to redeem our suffering. They had to run from, they had to go from their families. You have to realize it wasn't just like there was persecution and then they just left because they had nothing going on. They had lives here. Imagine being displaced like the refugees we see right now. We see it in modern day.

Imagine now that our church gets displaced and all of a sudden your home is now sitting empty because it has been, somebody else has taken it over. That's happened in Syria and a lot of Christians, they put Christian on the door and the different factions have come in and they've had to move. And now you're in Sweden because you've had to cross the borders.

We're no longer in the whole. That is what is happening. But along the way, the gospel began to be shared and they would not let suffering stop their redemption. Let me say that again. They wouldn't let suffering stop their redemption. It's so easy to get into that negative storyline. And what God wants us to do is to pull us back and say, my hand's with you.

Do you believe that I can turn this around for your good? But it is so hard and I'm not taking away the difficulty of that. But I want to give you hope that God knows your story and your story is his story. One of the marks of Christ falling you'll see in your notes is that suffering projects us, propels us, thrusts us deeper into kingdom living.

Let me say that again. One of the marks of Christ following. And we see this in the crucifixion. Do you get this as the entire narrative of the gospel? That every time we suffer, Paul talks about this in his gospels, as he writes to the churches, his letters. Suffering propels us into deeper kingdom living and expands. It is one of the greatest fuels to expand the kingdom in your life.

Do you see how the kingdom was expanded through Christ's suffering? I mean eternal. Just boom. It freed us from death. Christ's suffering. Suffering. And while we don't want suffering, we want seasons of peace like Solomon had where it said he had peace on all boundaries. And I'm praying for that. I'm saying I want peace on all boundaries and freedom from calamity.

How good does that sound? His whole reign. Solomon. Peace on all sides and freedom from calamity. Just give me a week of that. I just want four days of that and we're good. So it's a prodigious into kingdom living. And so I want you to reboot your idea of what's going on in your life and saying where's the kingdom opportunities. Verse 20 shows that some men, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene.

So these were like our surf church. They were of a certain type of people that said we want to reach the people that we are like. Don't you have a special heart for the people you're like? There's nothing wrong with liking the people that you're like or that like to do the things that you like to do. Because there is a unity and a commonality that comes with it.

There's nothing wrong with that. And they said we are of these people. We are from Cyprus. We are some Cyrene. We are from these. You know, remember Simon the Cyrene carried the, that's in northern Africa, carried the cross of Jesus. We saw the people from Cyprus, from this island, you know. And there was Greeks and all the different Hellenistic Jews is what they call it.

If you look in the scripture and see Hellenistic Jews, that means that Greeks or Gentiles is what that means. And they said we want to reach those. And they're only going to the Jews. But this message came to my heart. And I want to share it with other believers. I want to share it with them. And so it says that they went out, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.

Do you believe it's good news? You know, if you read enough of the newspaper today, they're continually trying to portray the gospel as bad news. It's bad news. It's what you can't do, it's what you don't like, it's what you don't agree with, yada, yada, yada. You know, it's easy to start thinking that ourselves. The gospel's good news. Really good news.

Gospel means good news. You know, when you have good news, don't you want to share it? You want to share the good news. But the thing is, we have to believe in our heart that it is good news. You know, I have to remind myself. I've got to tell you, just because you're a pastor doesn't mean that you have this constant bubbling gospel in your heart all the time.

I've got to remind myself that God's story is good news. And it's good news to focus beyond, and this has been a good tool, I'll give it to you right now, that I heard two weeks ago. When you start laying out that negative storyline of your life, skip ahead to it into eternity when you're with heaven, in heaven. Just skip over that, because we know at one point we will be, if we have accepted Christ as our Savior and his blood is shed for our sins, and we believe in that in our hearts, the scripture says, we will be with God the Father for eternity.

That when I start getting these negative storylines, one of the things I've done, it's been a great tool, and it might work for you, is just, you know what? That's not the end of the story. Let me just go to the end of the story. And I meditate on being with the Father God. I want to say, that has been such a blessing for me, and it calms me down, because I realize everything's going to be okay.

And isn't that what we're looking for? We're looking for that thought that says everything's going to be okay. But in Philippians, it says we want that understanding of that peace we get, that everything's going to be okay, to come from a supernatural place. It's more than a 10,000 armies. I'd rather have the Lord than anything. It says that the God of the universe is with you.

Can we get that in our heads, that he is with us all the time? And that is a narrative that the enemy constantly wants to tell you is untrue, that the hand of the Lord is not with you, that you are alone. But let's look at the hand of the Lord. 1 Chronicles, you'll see there, 29, 12. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. And in your hand is what?

Power and might, and in it, in your hand, to make great and to strengthen everyone. That there's strength in the hand of the Lord. The hand of the Lord is upon you. Do you believe it? I had to remind myself. And I don't even see him working. Psalm 31, 15. What's in his hands? My times are in your hands. Everything you're going to do, he knows. It's in his hand.

You can stop worrying about it. Just enjoy the way maker more than you have to know the way. Do you enjoy the way maker? Do you have to know the way? I've got to say, 80% of the time, I would rather know the way than the way maker. Can I be honest with you? I'd rather know the way. What's going on here? Is this going to happen? Is that going to happen?

How's that business thing going to work out? How's this going to happen with the church? If you had a choice, you can know your future or know the way maker. I'll tell you what, you probably don't want to know your future. Wouldn't that terrify you? If you would have known when you were 15 what you knew now up to this point, I don't want to go. I don't want to go.

Don't send me. God is good. My times are in your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and those who persecute me like you will. Isaiah 64, 8. You are our father. Love it. What are we? We're the clay. And you are our potter. And all of us are the work of your hands. He's just forming you. It's your artwork to him. You're a child to him. You're his creation.

He's creating you. He loves you. He's so caring and passionate. God is so good and he's creating that. The final thing we see here is this. And about digging a hole. It says that we can plant something into. It's that these people then sent Barnabas and Saul to go to these Gentile believers. That Barnabas saw what was happening. And then it says that he went down.

As you look in the scripture, it said that he went down. I think it's in verse 21 or 22. News had reached about the church in Jerusalem. And so they sent Barnabas to Antioch. And when he arrived and saw the grace that God had done, because grace is with you too as you go, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true in the Lord with all their hearts.

He was a good man. We know about Barnabas. Full of the spirit and faith. And a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. Because you couldn't text him. He had to go to a city and start asking around. Anybody seen Saul? Anybody seen Saul? And he found him. And then he brought him to Antioch. And then for a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught a great number of people.

And the result was, it was so, I would say, spiritually nuclear that they got the title Christians at Antioch. Here's what I thought was interesting. They invested where God, the seeds were growing. What was on Paul's radar for that year? He's in Tarsus doing something. Like making tents, preaching, getting beat with rods as he talks about. I don't know.

Something's happening with him. And then Barnabas comes down and says, hey, God's hand is working here. You've got to come see this. And what does Paul do? Dude, I'm in. If God's there and God's working, I'm sure he prayed about it. But he went to where the things were growing. I've got to say, sometimes something's dead and you need to let it go.

Sometimes we're trying. I mean, and I've seen this, and I want to be careful as a pastor. I've just seen sometimes where pastors, like our churches, our movements, like the season's done. Like the Lord is like, we're done there. Like it was great. The 1950s, 60s, and 70s, that was awesome. And they're still trying to crank it. Still trying to make it happen.

But the Lord's like, I love you and I'm going to be here with you. But like, I'm doing a new thing. And Paul was so in tune with the gospel and with the Holy Spirit that he went and saw what was happening. And he invested in it. And as elders and as a pastor of your church, we are, or our church, let me say that, we are looking at what God is moving in.

Right now it seems like he's moving with young married couples. We had one, two married couples when I got here. We have multiple married couples, young married couples now. Maybe 10, 12, 15 young married couples. God's moving there. I've got to tell you what. We hadn't thought about that. We're going to invest in it now. We're seeing the children's ministry grow.

Things with junior high. Things with surfing. I want to say we're going to water what we see grow. And that is what they did here. And so back to you, what do you see growing? Like I would say if you see the kingdom working and some sprouts coming up, go there and water it. And maybe there's something you just need to say, like it's a ministry thing, and just say, you know what?

It's done. And I've got to say, there's nothing wrong with something being done. Like I finished elementary school. I don't want to go back, you know? It was great. I loved it. It was so fun. Briarpatch Elementary was awesome. It's done. And I hear oftentimes, you know, that you'll know a great Christian work if it lives on. I don't know if that's true.

I think God has things he wants to do, and then he's just done with it. The church in Jerusalem here was there, and then it was done. Do you know that the church was scattered? Not that that was a great reason that it was scattered, but God took that scattering. What did he do? Took it to the world. You see, he got this group together just like he did with Abraham and took it to the rest of the world.

The last thing I'm going to say, and we're done, is this. We need to be careful when we go out that we don't fall back. If you read the book of Galatians, Barnabas himself stopped meeting with these Gentile believers because certain sect of people who believe that you had to be a circumcised Jew to be a believer told him you cannot spend time with Gentiles.

And the whole book of Galatians is about what happens when we lose our focus on our freedom in Christ. I don't have time to get into that. Maybe I'll move into it next week. But if you want to know the rest of the story, binge read the letter to the Galatians this week. And you're going to see that Paul says, even Barnabas himself, in his hypocrisy with Peter, because he says, I rebuke them to their face, after spending a year with these people, and all of them becoming Christians, Barnabas himself, because this is a guy that wouldn't do that, was deceived and had said would not spend time, and he excommunicated these believers for a while until Paul came in and said, whoa, whoa, whoa, we got to get back.

So that message is this. Be very aware and keep our hearts baby soft before God that we might live in freedom and have no one put bondage on us. Won't get to the rest of that now. Let's ask the worship band to come forward. And if you would, let's stand.