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And Josh, I'm I'm switching microphones quite a bit here. Thank you. Thank you. And good morning, everybody. How are we doing?
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We're picking up in Acts chapter eleven nineteen through 30 today. I'm just picking up where Ray left off. And if you're just joining us in Acts, let me catch you up to speed. It's about the birth and growth of the Christian church. As simple as that.
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It really is. The birth and growth of the Christian church, it is fast paced, it's exciting, it's chronological. I love Luke's authorship of this book. And what's been grabbing a hold of me lately is just how applicable it is for today in light of of just so much. How how the gospel was and is and it's still going forward.
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And today, we begin with... Let me see if this is gonna work for me. Not quite. There it is. We begin with meanwhile, meaning while while Peter was in Joppa, and he had a vision of pigs in a blanket.
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Does anybody understand that joke? Because of the sheet. My wife said this morning, Carl, not everybody understands that. But Peter had a vision of all the cloved animals, and God says, listen, these are clean now, including pigs, so pigs in a blanket. Yeah.
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It's all in chapter 10 if you if you wanna read it. You didn't know how funny I was, did you? Yep. So while that was happening, and Peter explains to these doubting believers who are going, I I don't know. Should we be sharing this with Gentiles too?
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Peter is saying, absolutely, you should. The gospel is for everyone, Jew and non Jew. And this is the message really that he had. There's peace with God through Jesus Christ who is Lord over all, and he shows no favoritism. Ain't that wonderful?
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The good news for everybody. So while this is happening, the believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen's death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch Of Syria. Wouldn't you know it? Ray even made us a map today. Wasn't that nice of him?
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And some of you are map people and you go, I need a visual. Okay? I can't just imagine this in my head. And I... And I'm with you there too.
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But there it is. The good news is going forth. The good news is going north. And God uses something terrible, something awful, and that is Stephen's persecution and his death as a means to carry his worldwide plan of salvation to all who would believe. You've heard the expression, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
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What was meant for evil, God used for good. And and I really do. I wanna pause there to say that I think that's an important takeaway for us today. That God can use an awful situation and he can use it for good. That God doesn't waste our suffering.
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We wouldn't choose it. We wouldn't wish it on anyone. And yet, God can use that suffering. He can use persecution. He can use a terrible and awful situation to accomplish his purposes.
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And so I think that there's comfort in that as well, that God, you're using all things, even things that we don't understand to accomplish your purposes for his glory and our eventual good. Sometimes it doesn't feel good right now, but for our eventual good, God is working all things. But as the church scatters, they're bringing the good news with them. They're gospel carriers. And what is the gospel?
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Jesus is the Messiah sent from God. He came. He lived. He taught. He ministered.
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He died a sacrificial death on our behalf for our sins. And then he rose again. And he ascended to heaven, and he sent his Holy Spirit. He came, lived, died, rose, reigns, and sent his Holy Spirit. Just in a short little...
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Right there. But that's the gospel. That's the good news of the gospel. And there's peace with God through Jesus Christ. And he offers his love and forgiveness to everyone who believe...
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Who... Whoever believes in him. That's the good news of the gospel. So as they are going, just like Jesus commissioned him, look at this. They preached the word of God, but only to the Jews.
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As this holy nation, this chosen people, the gospel was first revealed to the Jews. But God's plan all along was that they would be a light to the nations. That they would be a light to the nations. First to the Jew, the good news would first come to them, and then through them to everyone else. But this is a new era.
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This isn't happening right away. Right? And... But some of them were doing just that. Look at in '20.
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Some of the believers who went to Antioch from Cyprus and Cyrene began preaching to the Gentiles about Jesus. They didn't make a distinction between Jew and Gentile, and they shared with whomever would listen. And look at this. And the power of the Lord was with them. And a large number of these Gentiles believed and they turned to the Lord.
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Key words here, the power of the Lord was with them. This wasn't a human, just a human effort. Right? This was an act of God working through ordinary men and women who simply shared their faith and trust in Jesus. Gospel witnesses.
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Gospel witnesses. Side note. May I just say this? Let's not underestimate the power of our witness. Let's not underestimate the power of our witness.
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We don't know. Right? We don't know what God knows. We don't see what God sees. We don't know what he has been doing and preparing in someone's life.
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Right? We don't always see that. And the power of God and your witness, your story about how God has changed your life. And sometimes that can be so simple. Like the blind man.
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Listen, I was blind, but now I see. That's his story. Boy, that's not hard to tell, but how impactful was his story. Right? Your story may connect the dots in a person's life for them to come to faith in Jesus.
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You might be that catalyst for them to turn the corner or rather to turn toward God. So may I just put that on your your plate this morning? God can use us in in powerful ways if we're willing to just simply share witnesses. 22. And when the church at Jerusalem heard what had happened, they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
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Barnabas, the son of encouragement. A Jewish man, but he was from a Gentile area, which means he knew the culture. He knew the people. He lived with them. He understood them.
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And I think this was a very wise strategy to send Barnabas. Some might say, well, why didn't they send Peter? Peter might not have been the guy at the time. Or maybe he was back in Jerusalem enjoying the benefits of now being able to eat bacon. I know that I would.
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Right? Because now all animals are clean. I'm the bacon and the, you think, joke. But, a good strategy to send Barnabas going up there. Tell us what's happening there in this big melting pot of a city.
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Right? Jews, Greeks, Romans. There's business. There's wealth. There's power.
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You know what else? There was a lot of different religions. Little g God religions. This was a place where the gospel could really shine, and it did. Go on up there and look what happens when Barnabas goes there.
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When he arrived, he saw the evidence of God's blessing, and it filled him with joy. The evidence of God's blessing. Think about the evidence of God's blessing. Well, love, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his goodness, his faithfulness. Those...
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That's absolutely evidence of God's blessing. But the spirit of Christ in Barnabas was bearing witness with the spirit of Christ and these new Gentile believers. And Barnabas finds himself saying, this is a marvelous thing that God is doing among us. This is a wonderful thing that God is doing among us. And he didn't tell them what to do, or how to run their church, or say, hey, that's not how we do church in Jerusalem, friends.
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He didn't say that. Barnabas saw the evidence of God's blessing and it filled him with joy. Let me ask us this morning. When we see the evidence of God's blessing working in other churches and in our community, do we celebrate it? Do we applaud that?
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Because we ought to. We really do. Just like Barnabas here. Something that I I I really appreciate and love about First Be is that we're not a territorial church. Meaning we, when we see God at work in our community and around the world, we celebrate it and we wanna be a part of it.
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And Lord help us to continue to be that kind of church where our doors are literally open all the time. It's a wonderful thing. And look at this. This is one of my favorite parts of this verse. He encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord.
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Such a simple but profound word for the people of God. Friends, believers, stay true to the Lord. Keep following after him. Remember the good news of the gospel that he brought you out of darkness and into the glorious light of his son. Remember these things.
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24. Barnabas was a good man. He was full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. I tried to go back to the Greek and it really says that. He was a good man.
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He was full of the Holy Spirit and he was strong in faith. But really, when you think of a Barnabas like that, isn't that winsome? Isn't that attractive? I like that. I wanna be around a Barnabas.
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And look at this, and many people were brought to the Lord. Many people were brought to the Lord. Consider this, that his Christian witness, his Christian witness, that was a catalyst in bringing other people to faith. They saw Christ in him, and it drew those people to the Lord. And may that be said of us, that people can see Christ in us and go, I I would like some of that.
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I would like more of that. What what is that peace that you experience? What is that joy that you experience? Why are you remaining calm when people, you know, people are are are are are... Their hair is on fire?
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What... What's... What is going on in you that makes you that way? It's a perfect opportunity to be able to say, it it really is because of Jesus. It really is because of him.
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'25, Barnabas. He went to to to Tarsus to look for Saul. And I think this was another wonderful strategic move on the part of the church. They had an encourager, Barnabas. He knew the culture.
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He knew the people, but they needed a Paul. They needed a teacher, an evangelist, a prophet. They knew some... They needed somebody else in the body of Christ to make a more complete picture of the church. And 26, look at this.
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When he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. Here's a map again. I know some of you are map people, but consider this, just the distances today, okay, between these different places. Right? That would have been like, 80 miles.
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80 miles in that day. And they're not, you know, hopping on a plane or taking a road trip. Travel could be grueling at that time. And I would imagine often dangerous, and yet they go, this is worth it. This is worth it.
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The Holy Spirit is stirring our hearts, and we need other parts of the body of Christ to to complete the work that that God's given us. And so that's what they did. And look at this. Both of them stayed there with the church for a full year teaching large crowds of people. Consistent teaching of the word of God over time.
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I found this interesting that that word teach often is associated with Jesus' ministry, where he taught crowds, he taught his disciples, he taught individuals about the kingdom of God and about the fulfillment of scripture. Consistent teaching along the way. And it's not just teaching from right here. It's teaching in your small groups. It's teaching on a job site.
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It's teaching in a home when you're caring for someone. It's meeting with individuals and sharing what you know to be true about Jesus. Just studying the word of God together. And preaching and proclaiming is very important. It absolutely is.
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But just as important it is to... In our small groups, I think of our men's group on Thursday, and a group of men come over lunch. And honestly, nobody's really even eating. I think their... The the soul food right there, it seems to be enough.
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And and everyone seems to get engaged and we begin to hear from one another. And we hear how they're learning from the scripture and we get to hear their take on it or their experience of it. And it's a beautiful beautiful thing. Consistent application of the Word of God over time. Big groups, small groups, whatever it is, the Word does the work.
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We really do believe that here. The Word is living and active. We believe it's enough. But it does have to be taught. It does have to be presented.
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It has to be explained. 20... It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians. They were called a lot of things before this. Disciples, saints, believers, brothers, witnesses, and now Christian, Christ ones.
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Christ ones. Those who sought to be like Jesus. And during this time, some of the prophets traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch. Here's a map again. You map people.
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This was about 300 miles north of Jerusalem. So even if a person averaged about 20 miles a day, it would still take about fifteen days of actual walking. Think Nick Stern on his little, you know, not little, those long journeys on the Camino that he does. This is a lot of walking. But, you know, consider you get to know someone pretty well on a trip like that.
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You got a lot of time to talk with one another, probably be praying together. In '28, one of these prophets, Agabus, he stood up in one of the meetings and he predicted by the spirit that a great famine was coming to the entire Roman world. And this was to... Was fulfilled during the reign of Claudius. And it wasn't just recorded by by Luke.
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You can look back at extra biblical records from Josephus and Tacitus, and and it records the famine too. These things really did happen. Luke gives us a... An accurate historical account. But Agabus, a prophet, he predicted this would happen by the spirit.
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I know sometimes it can make people uncomfortable. Oh, by the spirit, you know, in prophecy and things. I I would describe myself as charismatic with a seat belt. But I I I would imagine I would imagine really though that it looks something like this. As they met together, right, and there was this prophecy happening that it probably looks something like this.
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Don't stifle the Holy Spirit. Don't scoff at prophecies. Test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good and stay away from every kind of evil. I would imagine their gathering looked a lot like that as they were listening to this prophet speak and prophecy about the famine that was coming.
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And look at this, '29, the believers responded. The believers responded. The believers in Antioch decided they were gonna send relief to the brothers and sisters in Judea, everyone giving as much as they could. As followers of Christ, right, they were saying, what would Jesus do in this situation? What would Jesus do?
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And they responded with radical love and generosity and sacrifice too. This they did, entrusting their gifts to Barnabas and Saul to take to the elders of the church in Jerusalem. And I think this is so awesome that the good news, it came from Jerusalem. Right? Went north to Antioch.
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And then the evidence of their faith in Jesus went back to Jerusalem, just like a boomerang in the form of relief during that famine. That's the scripture. That's that's what I've got today. Just that chunk of scripture right there. And I'm gonna stop for...
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There for now. I have some application. I'll say this before that. Ray's gonna pick up, from there when he comes back in a few weeks. Brad will be teaching the next two weeks.
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And then the week after that, one of our missionaries, Anders Olsen, will be sharing. But I want... I I I wanna say that the application from this text leapt off the page at me this week. And I'm amazed at just how timely it is sending Ray and Tanya to Africa for a missionary encouragement tour and right here, right now in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for us. And so I'm gonna share this little acrostic with you.
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And it's it's tralp. That's that's not even a word. But I... It's it's it's not. Yeah.
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I even looked it up. Maybe it's a word. No. No. That's just what the the the first letter starts with.
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But there are application points nonetheless. So t for take. T for take. Take the gospel with you wherever you go and word indeed. I think that we can draw from the text.
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As the believers were scattered, they brought with them the spirit of Christ wherever they went. They let their light shine. And church man, encourage us to do so. Let your life shine. We meet here.
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Yes, the spirit of Christ fills us here, but we go out from here. And what do we take with us? Spirit. We do. Let's be doing that.
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Let that light shine. R for remember. Remember, the gospel truly is for everyone. We all have barriers, don't we? We have barriers that make us less inclined to share with this person or that.
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Let's remind ourselves, God so loved the the world. The world. Can we see every person as a precious soul created in the image of God? Do you see that? As you go out into your workplaces, where you are, where you do life, do you see each person as a precious soul created in the image of Jesus?
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It's a good question to ask ourselves because it's... When we do that, I begin the barriers start to the barriers start to come down. God gave his only son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life. That's the message we carry with us. R for rely.
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To rely on the Holy Spirit's lead. God really is doing the work. We're just the messengers. We're just carrying the message. The Holy Spirit does the good work of convicting and convincing.
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We're not typically arm wrestling people into faith. Right? What we are asked to do is to rely on his power and simply share the gospel. We're just the messengers. E for encourage.
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Encourage one another and build each other up. You know the verse. But let's ask ourselves in light of hearing from Barnabas today. How can I be a Barnabas? How can I be a Barnabas?
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Who needs to hear a word of encouragement? Answer. All of us. We all do for real. And some of you say, might say, that's not a real encouragement.
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But you can still have a good word for somebody. Who needs to hear that word? Stay true to the Lord. Keep following after him. Listen, I know this is a very, very difficult season in your life.
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God truly is good. He will lead you through. I'm here to walk through this with you. I'm praying for you. How can I help?
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How can I serve you? These are encouraging things to hear. Whatever it is, can we take just a moment? Just a moment. Because we got plenty of time here.
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It's a... It's gonna be a short sermon. Let's let's let's take a moment here to pray and ask the Lord. God, who could we encourage this week? Maybe it's today.
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Maybe it's this week. Maybe you've laid somebody on our heart and our mind that needs a word of encouragement. And Lord, when we feel stirred in that way, would we just take that step of obedience and respond immediately to offer that word of encouragement, that help, that prayer, whatever it may be, whatever it is that you're prompting us to do. Thank you God for the body of Christ. Thank you that we're all working together to accomplish your purposes.
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It doesn't depend on on on on one of us. And we all in here have different circles of influence. And I'm asking, Lord, that in our circle of influence, that you would impress on us who it is we need to call or to encourage, pray for, just like Barnabas would. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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Here's another. Look for other believers in the body of Christ to join you on the journey. Not one person has all the gifts. We were not made that way. God purposely designed us.
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Purposely designed us so that our gifts would be working together. Just like Barnabas needed a Paul, we need one another. I just wanna tell you right now, I need you, body of Christ. I do. I need you.
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Your gifts. Your particular gifts. And some of you might think, I I don't even know what those are. I I'm not sure. I've I've I've I don't know.
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But maybe just try something. Maybe maybe service is your gift. Where you're an acts of service person. You may not say a lot, but you sure can do a lot. Maybe you're words of encouragement person.
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Maybe you're a mercy person. Maybe you're an administrator. My wife is an incredible administrator. She can get things done much faster than I can. But what is it that God has gifted you with?
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If you're a teacher and you like to teach small children. Uh-huh. What is that gift? And if you're wondering what it is, try something. Try something.
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But we need one another. I need your gifts. One body, many parts, and we need one another. P for participate. Participate as you recognize what God is doing.
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I believe that's coming right out of the text from verse 29. Participate as you recognize what God is doing. One quick story here as as I I begin to wrap up. My sweet, sweet mom, her name is Sandy. And she has a best friend named Lisa.
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And they pray they pray together and they share verses almost every day. They're always sending verses to one another. I often get to be the recipient of these verses. I love it. Sweet, sweet, praying, godly women.
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And Lisa, she has a son named Jonathan. And Jonathan is a missionary at a place called Eagles Wings Children's Village in Uganda. They share Jesus and meet the needs of orphaned and impoverished children, a lot like what Dave and Kim Hatfield do. And in fact, they're only ten hours from where Dave and Kim Hatfield are in Kenya. But that's a picture of their website.
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I know you can't read all of that, but that's just a picture from their website. Last week, it was a Saturday. Last Saturday, a group of men broke into the organization. And long story short, one of the guards was beaten severely. Many valuable things in in that place were stolen.
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The guard was brought to the hospital. He is now recovering. He's in better shape. But it was an awful, awful thing that happened. And so I got that news on Saturday, and Sunday I came in, and just in passing, I saw the mission team was meeting in the library.
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And and I said, hey, listen, can I can I just share something with you? Would you pray for this situation? And not only did they pray, later on they said, I think we can do more. I think we ought to do more. And so let's send a financial gift.
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And then Ray and Tanya said, well, we're in Africa. Let's just build it into one of our stops. They plan to meet, this man, Jonathan. I haven't met Jonathan. I only know him through through my mother's friend.
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I mean, are loose connections here. But we, first b, we recognize the work that God is doing, and we wanna be a part of it. Whether it's relief or encouragement or whatever is needed, that is something I love about the heart of our church. I just wanna tell you that. Just how much I I love the heartbeat of of first b, That whatever it is, we wanna be a part of it when we see God moving.
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And you are a loving and generous and spirit filled church. May I just tell you that? Do you hear this often enough? Because it's so true. You are loving and generous and spirit filled church.
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And I'd like to be a Barnabas today and encourage us to participate as we recognize what God is doing in our homes, in our small group, in church, in neighborhoods, in workplaces, our town, our nation, around the globe. Whatever God is doing, wherever he's moving, let's ride that wave and consider how we can participate. So that is the word of God from Acts eleven nineteen through 30 today. And I'll invite Judy and Emily, if you would come back up, I'd love to have a closing song. And while they're coming up, may I pray?
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Could we just pray together on what we've heard? Lord God, we thank you for this very timely and applicable word today. And we want to be your gospel carriers in word and deed wherever we go. God, we know we blow it sometimes. We really do.
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But that point of the gospel is that we didn't live a perfect life. You did. And you died a sacrificial death on our behalf because of our sin. And then you rose to life triumphantly. You ascended to heaven.
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You sent your Holy Spirit. And now here we are, the church, the body of Christ, continuing on in this day the work that you first gave us. God, would you help us to remember the good news of your love and forgiveness? That's for everyone. Would you help us to rely on your Holy Spirit knowing it's not all on us.
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We don't save people. God, you do the saving. We rely on your Holy Spirit. We just share the message. You're the one who moves in power.
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Would you help us to encourage one another? Lord, some people need a word of encouragement today, maybe even this afternoon. Would you stir our hearts toward them? And would you help us to look for one another within the body of Christ? We don't single handedly have all the gifts.
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They're shared because you meant for us to use them together. And so, Lord, would you help us to look for one another in the body of Christ to continue to carry out the mission. In Jesus' name, thank you for inviting us to participate in what you're doing. Amen.
