Sunday, October 5, 2014

The Church Planting Churches - Acts 11:19-30

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,” that’s the first “G” in God’s 3G network.
·        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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