The Church Planting
Churches (or, "God's 3-G Network!")
Acts 11:19-30
Introduction: The world has been
changed by technology in many ways, one is the instant communication we have.
Once a week we "Skype" with our daughter's family down in NJ, and
it's been fascinating to us to see our granddaughter interacting with us over the
computer screen – it’s all perfectly natural to her, I held my hand up by the
camera and said "give me five" and she smacked the computer screen!
I subtitled the message today "God's 3-G Network" but I am not
talking about modern technology or smart phones, but rather I'm referring to
God's sovereign hand guiding and growing and graciously knitting together a
worldwide network of churches that together are His church.
Lately we have had some opportunities for the body reaching
inward, as we seek to encourage one another, and bear each other’s burdens. We
are a family, and when we act like it our witness to the world is also
enhanced. Remember Jesus’ words, “By this men will know that you are my
disciples, if you love one another.” The unity of the body also
enhances our ability to carry out our mission in the world. Acts has
shown us the biblical model of disciples making disciples. God doesn’t send
angels or speak directly in a voice from heaven to most people, rather He
speaks through His followers, people like us, to reach those who need to hear,
and to build up those who are in the faith. Disciples making disciples. This
passage reminds us that healthy disciple making must occur in relationship to
the church as diverse gifts work together in a unified body to build each other
up and to carry out our mission to reach the lost. We also see here that the
multiplication of healthy churches will be the eventual result.
The
Big Idea:
God will use the diverse gifts of his people to build healthy, growing,
reproducing churches.
I.
The Guided Expansion of the Church: Jesus is building His church even
through times of persecution and hardship (19-21). I almost titled this point
“the Spontaneous Expansion of the Church,” since that is what it might look like
at one level. After all, it was birthed out of persecution, the scattering that
happened after Stephen was killed and persecution intensified against the
believers in Jerusalem and Judea. However behind the scenes, we see the hand of the Lord
providentially guiding the circumstances, working through His Spirit
empowered followers, to build His church. That’s really the big idea in
Acts, it’s not just, “Well, look at that, it all worked out in the end!”
Rather, it is “Well, look at that, nothing could stop what Jesus is doing, He works it all out in the end!” So I
want to emphasize what God is doing, rather than “The Spontaneous Expansion of
the Church,” we see “The Guided expansion of the church,”
· Persecution, Providence, and the
Plan of God: Luke reminds us that God worked through a painful situation to
accomplish His good purpose…
Remember
back in Acts 8:1,4 in the aftermath of the stoning of Stephen we read,
“…And
there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem,
and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except
the apostles... 4 Now those who were scattered went
about preaching the word...”
Even
though the opposition to the church had taken a violent and deadly turn, God
was not finished, Jesus was still working. Here at the end of chapter 11,
Luke, the master historian and story teller shows us the connection between
that event and the next stage in the outward expansion of the church.
19 Now those who were
scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen [see Acts 8:1,4] 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.
It’s
a dramatic flashback in the story, reminding us of the persecution that
followed the brutal killing of Stephen and resulted in the “scattering” of the
believers in Jerusalem. They weren’t merely dispersed, they were scattered like
seeds, preaching the word of Christ as they went. Even this part of the
mission began with an emphasis on the Jews, but the story now takes a momentous
turn: some preached the Gospel “to the Greeks also” in Antioch.
Acts has been preparing us for this transition. The movement outward has
been gaining momentum. First the Samaritans and a lone Ethiopian eunuch come to
saving faith (Acts 8). Then the persecutor Saul is converted and we are told
that he would bring the Gospel, as a chosen instrument of Christ, to the
nations (9:1-6, 15,16). Then Peter returns to the story and He receives the
vision of a sheet descending from heaven, and the message that there is a
deeper significance to that vision, and goes to the home of a gentile to preach
Christ. As he is speaking they believe and the Spirit falls, making clear to
all the Jews present the connection with the day of Pentecost. Now Luke takes
us back to those who were scattered, and shows how they began reaching out to
the Greeks as well as to the Jews. All by chance? The Lord is guiding His
people as He builds His church.
·
The
Lord’s Hand in the Mission (v.21) 21 And the hand of the Lord was with
them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
Notice that it wasn’t cleverly designed church growth
strategies, it wasn’t a well planned gospel presentation, it was the “hand of
the Lord,” the presence and power of Christ, that brought the growth. A
great number believed and turned to the Lord. That truth hasn’t changed.
The same Jesus is alive, building His church. The same Spirit that filled and
empowered the believers in the New Testament is with us and in us today.
Will we yield to Him, available, willing to have a part in His program? You
see, nothing has really changed, God will still use the diverse gifts of his
people to build healthy, growing, reproducing churches.
II.
The Growth of a Missions Minded Church: The church will discern what God
is doing and rejoice, and send the workers he has raised up (22-26).
· An Encouraging development in
leadership: Barnabas is sent (22-24)
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.
If
we’ve been reading Acts carefully we probably aren’t too surprised that the
Jerusalem church sends Barnabas to Antioch. He’s
appeared in the story a couple of times before this, and even his name
(Barnabas = “Son of Encouragement”) reminds us that he is an encourager. He was
there in Jerusalem selling land and giving radically and generously to meet the
needs of the believers. He showed up when the Jerusalem church leaders
were skeptical of Saul’s conversion and they were afraid to accept him.
And now here he is sent to bring encouragement and stability to a new and
growing church. Since he was from Cyprus he immediately had a connection
with the other leaders who were from Cyprus and Cyrene. God has a way of
preparing specific people to fill specific needs in his Mission. And that
includes you! You have been uniquely prepared by God to fill a gap that
only you can fill. God is the potter, He has shaped you into the person you
are. Your “SHAPE,” as Rick Warren calls it: your spiritual gifts, heart’s desire, abilities, personality, and experiences have all been given
and guided by Him to prepare you for the work he wants you to do!
Barnabas “saw the grace of God and was glad…” How do you see grace?
You can see the evidence of it, lives changed, hearts transformed, the handprint
of God’s mercy and grace overflowing all around him… And he encouraged them,
exhorting them to stay faithful to the Lord, to be intentional in their walk as
his disciples. It was his nature, he was “a good man,” and he was filled
with the Spirit, and He believed God…. And God blessed, the church was growing.
It seems that new believers were coming into the body, and that believers were
using their gifts and growing in the faith. As Barnabas saw the evidence
of God’s grace in those believers, it seems that he remembered a powerful
illustration of grace, an example of God’s unmerited favor, the persecutor who
was transformed into a preacher of the gospel of Christ.
· An Expansion of the Team bears fruit:
Saul joins the team (25-26)
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.
Barnabas
saw the work growing and he remembered someone who’s gifts and talent and
calling seemed an excellent fit. And so he went and got Saul, the very one who
was at the heart of the persecution that scattered the believers from Jerusalem
in the first place, no doubt including some who were now a part of this new
church in Antioch! Maybe he saw gifts and abilities, aspects of Saul’s
divinely given “S.H.A.P.E.,” that he could envision filling needs in the church
in Antioch. God was not only giving this new church an expert Bible
teacher, but he was giving them a living, breathing, example of God’s amazing
grace, an illustration of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in a human
life!
Notice that Luke mentions that here, in this church, the disciples were first
called “Christians.” The “Christ-people” were probably identified by those
around them in a mocking way, “Oh, he’s one of those!” After you came to faith
in Christ, were you surrounded by those who accepted and affirmed your new
faith in a positive way, or did they mock you? My brothers called me
“preacher-boy” but I didn’t mind! I think those who were called “Christians”
were not ashamed to be identified with the Lord Jesus Christ, their Savior and
Master. Are we peculiar people? I hope so! God will use the diverse gifts
of his people to build healthy, growing, reproducing churches.
III.
The Generosity of a Church Engaged in Mission: A healthy, missions minded church
will see needs as God sees them, and be moved to compassion (27-30).
· Believers too can pass through times
of hardship (27,28).
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).
Any
of us can come into a situation where unexpectedly we have need or hardship.
Sometimes it will be situations that we face individually, sometimes the
broader economy, but it can happen. It does happen. We need to care for one
another, help one another. In some cases that may involve counselling with the
intent of helping people see how they can live within their means, make better
choices. In some cases it will mean giving financially to help in emergencies.
That is one of the functions of our deacons and deaconesses as they help in the
shepherding ministry of the church. We take a “deacon’s fund” offering
once a month, on communion Sunday, not just because that’s what we’ve always
done, but to have some funds on hand so that the church can respond to
emergency needs, first in the body, and also in the community. We don’t
normally know when they will come, only that they will come. So
we have a deacons’ fund available to respond. In this passage in Acts the Lord
let the church in Antioch know, through Agabus, that there would be a famine in
the land, so they determined to give, “…everyone according to his ability…”
Agabus will appear again later in the story, warning Paul that He was going to
be arrested when he went to Jerusalem.
·
Believers
will respond generously to brothers in need (29, 30).
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.
I
think that generosity is another evidence of the grace of God, something we can
see, something we should be thankful for.
What
is God saying to me in this passage? God will use the
diverse gifts of his people to build healthy, growing, reproducing churches.
What
would God have me to do in response to this passage? Let’s start with
the last point, the radical sharing that was part of the early church. Everyone
gave “…according to this ability…” Sometimes its just the
opposite, the proportionately most generous are those who have the least, like
the widow who had two mites, and gave it all. I remember the story of the guy
who went to his pastor and said when his salary was small he didn't have any
problem giving 10% or more to the Lord’s work, but now, it just seemed too much
since his salary was so large. The pastor prayed, “Lord, please help this
brother to give in proportion to his income, or, bring his income down to the
level of his giving!” I don’t know about individual giving in this
church, only that with our tithes and offerings we are able to meet our needs
and give to missions, so praise the Lord! But it’s good to be reminded that we
are stewards: we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out. It
is not only the 10% or so we might give, but 100% of what we have has been
entrusted to us by God. We are required to be good stewards. Are we willing to
see the needs around us, and be open to what God would have us to do?
Stewardship extends to another area as well, that is the gifts and talents God
has given us. All that we have is because of Him, our SHAPE, as as I
mentioned earlier, our Spiritual
gifts, Heart’s desire, Abilities, Personality, and Experiences, are all a part of
how God, the Master potter, has formed us. Are we willing to dedicate ourselves
to discovering and fulfilling our part in God’s mission?
Do you recognize God’s sovereign hand providentially guiding circumstances in
your life? Have you come to
grips with the fact that by grace your story is part of His story? Even as the story
of Jesus was unfolding, even that last week as He went the Cross, He had you in
mind. He died for you. In fact, according to the Bible, He knew you from before
the foundation of the world! The Lord’s table invites us to remember that, and
to love Him more for what He has done. Think about that, AMEN.
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