Acts 11:19-30

Discussion Questions

• What does a culture of grace look like? How can we live so that others see Jesus in us?
• How has the grace of God transformed your life? How can we demonstrate—at work, at home, and in society—that “Jesus is worth every drop of our devotion”?
• What does it look like to orient our everyday lives around the Word, prayer, worship, and God’s people? What does it mean to you to live the good life?
• How can we show the love of Christ to others?
• Share a time when you turned to the Lord in prayer for wisdom about a big life decision.

Transcript

We do study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel. We have some paper copies. We’re going to be in the book of Acts today. If you want a paper copy, just lift up your hand, and if you don’t have one at home or you have a friend or a family member that might want or need a Bible, I invite you to take that as our gift today. I want to also welcome those who are worshiping with us online today. May the Spirit move among you as He has already been here. Well, friends, if you’ve lived in the Nashville area even for a handful of years, you certainly witnessed an enormous amount of change and growth in our beautiful city. And a large portion, we know this, of the growth we’ve seen has come from transplants, those coming from other states or countries. And I was curious this week to see how many residents of Nashville are actually native-born. They’re actually from Nashville. And so, I looked up some census data, and more than half of the people living in Nashville today were born outside of Tennessee. So, I wanted to do a little experiment. Who in this room here today is a Nashville native show of hands? All right. We got, yeah. Unicorns. It’s like a protected species around here. Becoming even rarer. So beautiful.

Now, when I meet someone, I don’t know if you have this habit, when I meet someone who seems like they’re from somewhere else, I have a habit of trying to guess the origin of their accent. And I’m not great at it. I’ve mixed up Alabamans and Georgians, not a good idea, New Zealanders and Aussies, those from Maine and Massachusetts, Texans and Oklahomans, never want to mix those up. I do think, though, there’s something beautiful about the way that God has designed human communication. The way we are designed for place and belonging. Whether we want it or not, we inherit language. We inherit an accent. It’s something we pick up. We don’t work at developing it, we receive it. Our accent reveals something about us, not everything about us, but something about us, where we are from. But it also shows us that we’re deeply connected to something other than ourselves. Our language, our accent reminds us that no one is exclusively self-made. We all come from someplace. An accent reveals something about our home.

Turn with me, if you would, to Acts, Chapter 11, verse 19. That’s where we’re going to camp out here today, in our study of the Acts of the Apostles this morning. It takes us to a new city in our narrative, the city of Antioch. Not Antioch, Tennessee, but Syrian Antioch, the capital of Syria at the time. Antioch was the third largest in terms of population city in the known world at the time. We had Rome, about a million, perhaps a little bit more, known for its power. We had Alexandria in Egypt, known for its intellect, and we had Antioch, kind of like the Chicago of their time. It was known for business, but also for pleasure. Business and pleasure. Antioch is a pivotal city in the story of the early church. And we’re going to continue to read that as we study Acts. It eventually will become the headquarters of the ministry of Paul. Now, what’s striking about this is that Antioch was known as this morally lax city, and it becomes the hub for gospel ministry, yet it was morally lax. It was like the Las Vegas of our time. It was, if we’re honest, like the Lower Broadway of our time, but also, incredibly diverse.

It was a cosmopolitan city. In this strategic location, there were Romans, there were Greeks, there were Africans, Jews, Arabs, pluralistic with a largely pagan population. And it’s in the context of that multicultural city, spiritually dark city, where the early church flourished and expanded beyond its roots, its foundation, in Jerusalem. You’re going to start to see Luke, as he’s writing Acts, point towards Antioch and not Jerusalem. Jerusalem is going to kind of fade into the background. Why? Well, the grace of God in Jesus was seen and heard and was experienced from a largely unknown group of Christian believers, church planters who were refugees from Jerusalem. That’s what we’re going to read about today. And many in the city of Antioch, those who were natives to Antioch, noticed something different in their speech and in their lives. These believers oriented themselves, their lives revolved around this person, Jesus, who they claimed died and rose again and was currently reigning and would come again. They oriented their lives despite the abundance of spiritualities and pleasures that were available to them in Antioch.

These people were different. Their lives orbited around something else. It was the person, it was the power, it was the hope of Jesus that radiated from these believers, and many in that great city noticed something different. Put it another way, their accent was distinct. Their spiritual accent was different. Not their linguistic accent, there were many of those because this church was incredibly diverse. Their spiritual accent was different. Ontologically, they were different. They had a different kind of being, and the people of Antioch took notice. They had a funny accent. And as I reflected on that text this week over the past couple of weeks, really, I asked myself often, what does my spiritual accent say about me? It’s a good diagnostic question for us. Is there something about the way that I am, the way I order my life, the way that I interact with my neighbor, the way that I approach meaning and purpose and work, the way that I handle myself in suffering and in pain? Jesus was compelling. In other words, the new church was so obsessed with the real Jesus, the people of Antioch had to create a different category for the kind of people that they were. They couldn’t quite place their accent.

But many wanted to know more and were hungry for the freedom, for the joy, for the life that they saw in these people. And I longed to see that kind of spiritual accent in myself. I hope you do. I longed to see more of that in our church here. We have so much of it here, and I long to see more of that grow. And in our families, in our friendships, in our relationships. Jared Wilson says this. I love this. He’s a pastor. “I remind myself and my church that a message of grace may attract people, but a culture of grace will keep them.” And I think that’s what we’re going to see here in this church at Antioch. So, Acts, Chapter 11, we’re going to start with verse 19. If you’ll allow me, I’ll pray for us and we’ll begin: Heavenly Father, we come to You with our Bibles open. We pray You’d open us to Your Word and open Your Word to us. May Your Spirit comfort and convict and point us to our only hope in life and death, Jesus. In whose precious name we all said “Amen.” Chapter 11, verse 19. “Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch.” First mention of Antioch here in the book of Acts. They were speaking the Word to no one except Jews. Verse 20: “But…” really important word there. “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.” Let’s pause here for just a second.

Luke, as he’s writing Acts, actually breaks up Acts into two different segments. Emily already mentioned that we’re going to do a study of Ruth here in July. And part of the reason is that Acts really is in two different segments. The first segment is the birth of the church, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the expansion and the growth of the church. That’s the first half of Acts, and we’re about to come to that, the end of that first half. The second half is the missionary journey, the outworking. Remember, Jesus said the Gospel will go from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the Earth. The last part of Acts is all about the ends of the Earth, and it ends in Rome. And so, we’re going to take a little pause in July to study the book of Ruth, and we’ll come back fresh for the second half of Acts. But what Luke is doing here as we’re getting towards the end of the first section is he’s pulling some threads. So, if you look there at verse 19, he pulls in Stephen. And if you remember the story of Stephen, that was what we would call Chapter 8. That was about 9 to 12 years before this. We don’t know the exact chronology. So, Luke is pulling back, just a few years before, he’s going to pull some threads. He’s going to bring up Stephen.

So, because of the persecution of Stephen, some people, some refugees from Jerusalem, came up to Antioch and many other cities and were planting churches. And it tells us there in verse 20 that they were speaking to the Hellenists. Those were the pagans. Those were the ones who had no background in the Holy Scriptures. Hellenists were those who were just simply, they were unaware of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. They didn’t understand the Bible, the Old Testament. They were speaking to the Hellenists, and they were preaching. They were having gospel conversations, and they were preaching the name of Jesus. I’m going to put up a map here to help locate us geographically. This is for all the map nerds. I put everything up there. The left-hand side you can see Italy if you’re familiar with what Italy is. And on the right-hand side, you can see the coast there of Jerusalem, or rather, Israel with Jerusalem. And then towards the top you see Antioch. Now, if you go to the next map, I’ve highlighted a few of the spots that are particular to this text. If you look towards the right, you can see Antioch, which is where we’re going to be based today. Tarsus, which is where Paul or Saul is right now. Cyprus, Crete, Cyrene down there at the bottom would be modern-day Libya, North Africa. And then, of course, you can see Rome there at the left. We’re going to leave that map up as we’re reading this text because I think it’ll be helpful to us.

So, Luke is pulling all of these threads, and he’s telling us something really important. That there’s a group of folks who are going to the third-largest city in the known world, Antioch, and they’ve planted this church. They’re having gospel conversations, they’re preaching Jesus, and they’re starting to see fruit here. Verse 21, here’s how they’re described: “…the hand of the Lord was with them. And a great number who believed turned to the Lord.” There’s faith and repentance, belief and turning. We see that there. What a beautiful description of just the simple word “them.” We don’t know their names. We don’t know these church planters’ names. Simply called them. “The hand of the Lord was with them.” What a biography. The hand of the Lord being with them. Verse 22: “The report of this [the revival that was happening in Antioch] came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem. And they sent Barnabas to Antioch.” So, if you look back at our map here, Jerusalem was about 300 miles away. So, something so significant was happening up in Antioch that it reached all the way down to Jerusalem, which at this point was the headquarters for the church’s mission. And they said, “We’ve got to send somebody to see what’s going on in this largely pagan city.”

And so, they send Barnabas, one of their key leaders. Barnabas is a nickname meaning “son of encouragement.” And he goes up, and what does the Luke say happened? “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. His encouragement was wow; there’s something incredible here. He was glad.” He was delighted. Keep on going. Keep on going. The son of encouragement came up, and he saw what was going on, and he just wanted to tell them to keep going. “…for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. [Verse 25] So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. 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.” It’s the first time that believers are given this name, Christians, Christianus, and it was likely mockery. It was a derisive, not a friendly name. Jesus Freaks is what it was.

Now back up to verse 25: “Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul.”  Let’s not gloss past that. Barnabas knew what was going on, and this church was growing so quickly that he needed help. And if you remember the story of Saul, after his conversion, he goes to Jerusalem, and the church there in Jerusalem decides they’re not sure about this Saul guy. He was persecuting us before. We’re not sure about him. So, he goes away. It’s been about nine, ten, eleven, twelve years, and Barnabas begins to think here in Antioch, “I need someone to help me with this church here in Antioch. I remember Saul.” And he goes to what for us would be eastern Turkey, Tarsus, to go look for this man. And the word look there is really, he goes on a search, he goes on a hunt. They didn’t have air tags back in the day or Find My Phone back in the day. He had to go find Saul, and he was on a hunt to find Saul. He brings him back to Antioch, and apparently, they have a year-long Bible study. Who wants to sign up for that? Come on. They had a year-long Bible study. There was something so distinct, so unique about this group that the pagan community had to give them another name. Christian. Christ folk. Christ partisans.

“Now, in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.” So really, Jerusalem’s taken notice. Verse 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.)” And you can look it up in extra-biblical material. You can see when Claudius was reigning from 41 to 54, that there indeed were many famines in that area. So Agabus was telling the truth. When we read the Scriptures, in particular narratives like Acts, we are reading concrete history. We can go look it up. Caligula, Claudius, Nero, we know when they reigned, and here Luke is bringing this up. So, what happens? Verse 29: “So the disciples, so the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief [money] to the brothers living in Judea [which would be Jerusalem, the church in Jerusalem]. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.” This is incredible. Think about it. The mother church in Jerusalem is now getting relief from the church in Antioch.

And this church here in Antioch determined, this wasn’t compelled, they weren’t, no one was demanding that they send money. They determined, they set their mind to it. “No, no, no, we’re going to give sacrificially. We’re going to give generously to help our brothers in Jerusalem.” And they send that. Now, turn to Chapter 13, verse 1. This is going to kind of put a bookend on the church here at Acts, not quite a bookend, but for our text here. “Now, there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, [and here were their names] Barnabas, [of course, we know that] Simeon, who was called Niger, [so a black man, likely from Africa] Lucius of Cyrene, [so this would have been an Arabic man from modern day for us, Libya, North Africa] Manaen, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, [so this would have been an upper-crust, kind of a high-society guy, Thurston Howell III, if you will] and Saul [who was the intellect, he was the brains, he was the professor]. We have the whole Gilligan’s Island here. The diversity in this church is just incredible, and it matches the diversity in the city of Antioch, which is really interesting.

What happens? How were they described? “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then, after fasting and praying, [this was a praying church] they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” So not only was this church in Antioch generous with their money, they were generous with all the resources, including their two primary leaders. They realized that the need was so great to the ends of the earth, Jesus said. And they prayed to the Lord, they fasted, they worshipped, they prayed to the Lord, they kept on praying, “Lord, what should we do?” And they send their two leaders, Barnabas and Paul, and this creates a gospel partnership that’s going to last for years. Well, this is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. So, of course, the focus now is shifting, beginning to shift from Jerusalem at the center, if you’ve been reading with us in Acts, to now Antioch as the primary hub of the church’s mission to the world. We’re going to see Paul’s ministry headquartered out of here, to the Gentiles, to the ends of the Earth. Look with me again, if you would, at verse 21 of Chapter 11.

“The hand of the Lord was with them,” verse 21 says. Now, that phrase is often used in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, it’s only used positively one other time in reference to the ministry of John the Baptist at the beginning of Luke’s gospel, another critical turning point in salvation history. The hand of the Lord was on them. In other words, Luke is very careful to point out that this powerful move of God, and yes, we can call it a revival, in Antioch is something for us to pay particular attention to. The holy fire that we see in this young church will spread like wildfire and will begin to turn the world upside down. You and I owe a debt of gratitude to these unnamed “them” believers who planted this church in Antioch. Here in Nashville, Tennessee, we are Gentiles, unless you have some Jewish heritage. We have a connection to this church in Antioch. A line can be drawn from that city to ours and many other Gentile cities around the world. Not only is Antioch the central hub of ministry for Paul, though, now get this, especially if you’re a ministry nerd or a history nerd: Even after Paul, Antioch becomes fertile ground for gospel preaching throughout church history.

I’m going to put up a slide, just a few of them. In the second century, we had Ignatius, who was from and based out of Antioch, Theophilus of Antioch. Theophilus of Antioch was the one who likely coined the term “Trinity.” Seeing that revealed in the scriptures, third and fourth century, Lucian of Antioch, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Chrysostom, known as perhaps the greatest preacher in the early church, golden-tongued, he was nicknamed. All of these people came from Antioch, a church planted by them, ordinary believers who were following the call of Jesus. In one of the most spiritually dark cities in the ancient world, the Lord’s hand moved to establish what I would call an outpost of His grace. Right there in Antioch, this cosmopolitan city. The kindness, that is the kindness and the power and the sovereignty of God at work, friends, to bring the bright light of Jesus to a dark place. Which obviously was so desperate for hope. This isn’t just history; He’s still moving in dark places today. May our church be known as an outpost of His grace. Do you want that? Say “amen.” Praying for God’s continued work here in our church, in our city, in our neighborhoods, in our schools, and then after we pray for it, getting to work, joining God in His mission, both here at The Village Chapel, in these four walls, and outside our four walls, which is why I love that we support 40 other mission organizations around the world.

Look together with me, if you would, at verse 23. “When he [Barnabas] came and saw the grace of God, he was glad.” My translation. Some of yours would say, “delighted.” To be glad in this context is like saying he was giddy. He was sent up here to check out what was going on. Is this the real deal that Jerusalem church wanted to know? And he was delighted. It was like going to the Grand Canyon for the first time, and you’re just in awe. It didn’t disappoint. Something to see here. But it was a curious phrase. Look at it again. “He saw the grace of God.” I don’t think we’ve had that phrase in the New Testament yet. The Spirit of God was dispensing grace through these people in dynamic ways in such a way that it was visible. He saw the grace of God. It was evident. They had a spiritual accent that gave themselves away, even to Barnabas. Now you and I could sit down, and we could write a theological white paper that elaborates what grace in motion should look like in a church. And that would be good. But that wouldn’t capture what’s happening here. Barnabas experienced it. He saw it. He heard. It looked and sounded like something. He saw the grace of God in these people.

And there’s so much for us to learn from this church at Antioch. I’d love for us to give our attention to what that grace looked like and sounded like, and three different characteristics that distinguished their spiritual accent: what they said, how they lived, and who they turned to. What they said, how they lived, and who they turned to. First, what they said. Well, thus far, if you’ve been with us in the study of Acts, the message of Jesus has largely gone out to those who have some idea, some concept, some grasp, are conversant with the Bible, the Old Testament for them. Thus far, the message of Jesus has gone to people who are at least familiar with the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Jews in Jerusalem, of course, would have known their Bible well. Samaritans in Samaria would have known the Scriptures, although with a different interpretation. The Ethiopian eunuch was actually reading from Isaiah when Philip came to him. Cornelius was a God-fearing man, meaning a Gentile, but he had some concept of the Jewish scriptures. But as the camera begins to focus on Antioch, this large cosmopolitan city, the light of Jesus was shining in a part of the world with no or very little understanding of God’s Word, of His people, the background, or the history.

The people of Antioch had an assortment of Greek and Roman and pagan gods, many spiritualities to choose from. They were known for their money, for power and sex and other pleasures that were plentiful and available for temporary satisfaction for the human heart. But as we read this text here, you can see it. There was something about the forgiveness, the hope, the promise of repentance unto life, as we studied last week, that was compelling to the people of Antioch. There was something different about this message. They were apparently many in Antioch who were hungry for hope. They were hungry for that forgiveness. They were thirsting for life. There’s something about this man named Jesus who died and was resurrected, ascended, and is actually going to come again. And when He comes again, death is not going to be anymore. There was hope there. Repentance unto life. There was something in their conversations that captured many hearts in Antioch. They hadn’t heard anything like this before. This young church plant had a funny accent.

Now, let’s bring this into our world for just a second. Our words can actually reach more people with a speed that would have been unthinkable even a few years ago. This example of grace and motion that we see here, pre-technology, should actually convict us and hopefully motivate us. What does my accent sound like? What does your accent sound like, your spiritual accent? If we were to do an audit of our ordinary day-to-day conversations, what would we hear? What would we hear? Would it sound a lot like my preferred news channel? Would it sound a lot like talk about myself? Or would it be obvious that the core of my joy, the core of my hope, hope despite a world that seems to be going mad? The core of my poise in the midst of suffering is actually rooted in a person in history, concrete history, who died and rose again, His death, His resurrection, His forgiveness today, and hope for tomorrow. The city of Antioch, they didn’t need another religion. They had lots of gods to choose from. They had plenty to choose from. They may not have known it, but the city was hungry for an encounter with the risen Jesus. It’s the same today. We are hungry for an encounter with the risen Jesus. And when these unnamed church planters arrived and they started having these gospel conversations, they were talking about Jesus, preaching about Him, it was reverberating in that place, and it still does today. It reaches here into this room.

Now, don’t hear what I’m not saying. I don’t think we are duty-bound to talk explicitly about Jesus in every single conversation that we ever have. It’d be a little silly and a little weird. But what would the character and the content of our day-to-day conversations be like? Do they demonstrate a life rooted and centered around Jesus, who died for us? Who rose again, who is our only hope in life and death that we sang about? Would the character and content of our conversations demonstrate that we’re eager to show how He has transformed us? Repaired marriages that have been torn apart. Maybe that’s your story. Maybe the Lord Jesus has pulled you out of the pit of addiction or been the source of strength for you in a dark season. Here’s what we know, they were having gospel conversations. Why? Because they, them, these church planters, had found that the gospel of Jesus was the only thing that could change a life. The gospel of Jesus was the only thing that could save a life. Amen. Do we believe that to the core? Is that something we orient our lives around? And listen, many are more eager than we realize to hear about this hope. Proverbs actually gets at this, “…like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” Now I said that they had a funny accent, and they probably did, but I think the accent was also vaguely familiar. There was something about the way they spoke and that they lived that resonated. Maybe they couldn’t quite pinpoint it.

Every image bearer was made to worship the one true living God. Every image bearer, to live in such a way that brings Him glory and loves our neighbor. Ecclesiastes says that God has put eternity into our hearts. Bobby Jameson, in one of my favorite books in the last few years, said: “The problem with stuffing the vastness of eternity into the cramped compartment of the human heart is that it doesn’t fit. What God has put inside us guarantees an enduring mismatch between what we want and what this world can give.” And Antioch had a lot to give and the people there who lived in Antioch. And they saw this new way of life and thought something is distinct there. The old hymn says, “…the things of this world will grow strangely dim.” Why? “In the light of His glory and grace.” There’s something more compelling. There’s something more precious. And many believed and turned to the Lord. There was something different about their message, and there was something different about these people. Number two, how they lived. They ordered their lives differently. More plainly, they were obsessed with Jesus. They were fixated on Christ. He was the center of their individual lives, their families, their relationships. And many in this cosmopolitan city were turning in repentance and faith because they saw, again, what we studied last week, repentance unto life, repentance that leads to life. Oh, I want that. That’s what I’m actually hungering for.

So as these people of Antioch turned to Jesus, others in the city apparently noticed what was going on in them, these new converts, and they said, Well, their accent is funny too. What are we going to call these people? They aren’t Jewish, they aren’t really pagans, they’ve left their old way of life behind. They aren’t really worshippers of all the other gods we have here. And so, they gave them a nickname. Christians, Christianus, little Christ, those who are with Christ, the people of Jesus, Jesus people. And their speech and their way of life was so distinct, so different in comparison to the Antiochian world that they had to give them a new category. There was a new way to be human, as Switchfoot would say. There was a new creation, as Paul would say. And many in Antioch took notice. Christianus, it’s actually three things. It’s a Greek word with a Latin form and a Jewish background. Greek word, Latin form, Jewish background. That right there, even the nickname, encapsulates the multicultural way of life there in Antioch. We’re not told who gave them the name Christian in our text here, but we can be reasonably confident it wasn’t the Jewish community. The Jewish community would never give the term Messiah, Christ, to another group. It wasn’t the Christians who gave themselves that name, for they had many other names that they’ve used throughout Acts. In fact, Christian is only used three times. They’ve called themselves saints and disciples and believers, the way, and they certainly wouldn’t take the name Messiah for themselves.

So, it’s reasonable to assume that it is the pagan culture that decided we need to give them a nickname. And Antioch was actually well known for giving kind of derisive nicknames. But what a beautiful name to bear. Christ’s once. And even if they were given this name as a mockery, what flowed out of the character and the nature of this growing church with the real Jesus were realized that lived out of the name of Jesus. They began to bear the family resemblance to the Lord Jesus, to take on the accent of his kingdom. Here are just a few ways that we see this Christ-centered character here in Antioch. There was remarkable unity out of diversity. Those people from Africa and North Africa, the islander, Barnabas was an islander, Tarsus in modern-day Turkey, Antioch, they had no reason to be together except for Jesus, who they worshiped. I love that Newton would say, “There’s only one political maxim that I adhere to.” And this church exemplified that. They decided, no, no, we’re going to give. There is a need in Jerusalem. We’re going to give to that need. And there was a growing hunger to know more of Jesus and to share that good news of Jesus around the world. And they sent off Barnabas and Saul. Emily and I were recently out of the country, just last week, in fact, we were in Turkey. And we were asked several times where we were from, probably because we looked kind of weird, and maybe we sounded weird. I don’t know. So, we would say Nashville, Tennessee. And most of the time, somebody would say, “Oh, Johnny Cash” or “Oh, Elvis,” or actually, more often, Jack Daniels.

Our state is known for something. The spiritual accent of this community became known for something. Christianos. The people of Christ. The life of a whole disciple of Jesus, the whole person. This is a little simplistic, but it really can be summed up into three things: head, heart, and hands. And this church in all three of those categories was flourishing because of the work of the Spirit and because of their eagerness to walk in the Spirit. And it takes both. Head, they wanted to know more of Christ. They had a year-long Bible study. Heart, they demonstrated a love for Christ and a love for one another, generosity, unity. Like I said, there was no reason for them to be together except for the risen Jesus. Listen, this is one of the many texts that shows us there is no place for racism or elitism or classism or any other kind of ism in the Christian faith. None whatsoever. Recent demographic studies, actually, I saw this this week, tell us that here in the U.S., by the mid-2040s, there’ll be no majority ethnicity in the United States. We are beginning to look a lot more like Antioch. And our missional approach should actually reflect that. So, head and heart, and they had hands, they sent money and they sent people on mission. They got their hands dirty. I love this from James K.A. Smith: “Our hearts…are like existential compasses and embodied homing beacons: [Listen] our loves are pulled magnetically to some north toward which our hearts have been calibrated. Our actions and behaviors – indeed, a whole way of life – the whole disciple, are pulled out of us by this attraction to some vision of the good life.”

And this young church in Antioch had anchored themselves around this vision of a good life in Jesus, His Word, His people, His mission, not a life free of suffering. Jesus actually told them, in this world there will be trouble. Sin has broken this world. But this vision of the good life of being in Christ shaped decisions they made about how they spent their time. They studied the Word, spent their money, they sent relief off to the church in Jerusalem. This wasn’t something they worked up. You don’t work up an accent; you catch it from the city that you’re livin’ in. That even had a little accent, didn’t it? Livin’. They were living in two cities, Antioch, and the kingdom of God. One eternal, one temporary. Just as we do. Two kingdoms. We all inhabit two kingdoms. Which kingdom does your accent sound like? Which kingdom does my accent sound like? Great question. Now it’s not sufficient for us to study a text like this and then simply conclude: Okay, so this week now I’m going to live like the church at Antioch. That’s not the worst idea in the world. Grace is opposed to earning, that’s true, but it’s not opposed to effort. Striving after holiness, seeking the Lord with your whole heart. Those are all good things, fundamental, in fact, kingdom values. But don’t miss this. Their regular, everyday lives looked different because their hearts were being shaped, informed, transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit, by simple things, things we talk about all the time. The word, prayer, worship of the Holy God and His people. Word, prayer, worship, and His people.

These are the ways in which we immerse ourselves in the kingdom of God. That we become receptive to the accent of the kingdom of God. They gave themselves to those things, they ordered their lives around those things because through those means of grace they encountered the risen Jesus, which is all. This is what we want. We want to encounter the risen Jesus. They were living in two places, Antioch and the Kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God was their true home. It was the accent of God’s kingdom they were inheriting. It seems to me, as they grew in the Lord, their hunger for more of the things of God grew, and just real practically. I love this from Jay Chapman. He said, “The rule that governs my life is this: anything that dims my vision of Christ, or takes away my taste for Bible study, or cramps my prayer life, or makes Christian work difficult, is wrong for me, and I must, as a Christian, turn away from it.” And we see that in this text here today. That they had turned away from the things of this world and turned toward the Lord Jesus, is what it tells us. They believed and they turned to the Lord, not out of religious duty or guilt, but because Jesus had so captured their heart, there was a greater treasure available, a more precious jewel. They longed for the things of home. Their true home in Christ. Number three, who they turned to. Verse 21 again tells us the hand of the Lord was with them. Someone once said that more can happen in five minutes of the manifest presence of God than 50 years of human effort. More can happen in five minutes of the presence of God than 50 years of human effort.

Listen, we can turn people to a celebrity, we can turn them to a club, to an institution without the hand of the Lord. Some people have irreverently said that ministry is about three B’s, getting butts in the seats, budgets, and buildings. You don’t need the hand of the Lord for much of that. But this church, it was this church that said, no, no, no, no, we need the hand of God. We need the hand of the Lord upon us. And they prayed and they worshiped and they fasted. It’s only when the hand of the Lord is with us that hearts are actually open to the Gospel. It’s only when the hand of the Lord comes that relationships that are fractured become restored. Genuine hope can anchor a person in a world that is so confused, so anxious. Only the Gospel, only the hand of the Lord can heal that. We should pray for the hand of the Lord, and God responds to prayers like that. I hope you know it. Look again, if you would, at Chapter 13. This incredibly diverse group of people, ethnically, politically, economically, all had turned to the Lord and formed a thick bond of unity and mission around the risen and reigning Jesus. And what does the text tell us? How does the text describe their way of being? The first thing it says, they worshiped the Lord. They fasted, they prayed, they sought the hand of the Lord. They didn’t simply turn to the Lord once for salvation. Their lives were a constant turning to the Lord, seeking after more of Him, His presence, more of His transforming power, His guidance.

Should we send Barnabas and Saul out? Who do we turn to? This is a rhetorical question. Who do we turn to when we have need? It’s someone we trust. And these people trusted the Lord. In this case, they were turning to the Lord because they needed His provision. They sent financial resources out. Now they were sending two primary leaders out to serve the mission of the church. They trusted the Lord whose hand had been with them, and they trusted it would continue to be. And out of this prayer in Chapter 13, we see a partnership between Barnabas and Paul that would last years. Without this prayer, we perhaps wouldn’t have half of the New Testament as Paul went out from city to city talking about Jesus and preaching Jesus to kings, to leaders, and to ordinary believers all around that part of the world. Part of their spiritual accent there in Antioch was a life that was continually turning to the Lord. A life marked by prayer and fasting. That means regular gathering together, worship together. A life turned to the Lord as a trajectory towards wholeness, towards life, repentance unto life. It was a life that the people in Antioch saw and it needed a different category, a new kind of humanity, Christianus. Now listen, identity precedes activity. Who you are first, and then behavior. Before they were ever given the nickname Christian, of course, these believers already had a new name, a new identity. They belonged to Jesus.

When you turn to Christ in faith, you are granted forgiveness. You’re made right before a holy God because of what Jesus has done for us on His cross. We’re also given a new status as children of God, with all the privileges and responsibilities of being a child. We bear His name; we take on His accent from the kingdom that He’s building. For believers, when we read a text like this, the question shouldn’t be, “Am I doing what these believers in Antioch did?” That’s not the right question. The question is, have I received the things that these people in Antioch have received? And at a fundamental level, if you’ve turned to Christ by faith, grace has given you everything you need in Christ. Everything you need in Christ. His grace is sufficient. Grace, though, leads to growth. And if we’re to be aware at any point in our life of slow growth, if our accent doesn’t seem to be all that distinct, we can turn to the Lord anew. And then turn to the Lord again. And then turn again. Ask the Spirit, perhaps this week, ask the Spirit to grow in you the kind of grace that was in motion that Barnabas saw and that he was delighted in. Ask the Spirit to change you, to make that grace real to you, to turn to the Lord, to live out of the name that you are given in Christ.

The city of Antioch had plenty of options on offer, which could entice a heart to turn this way and that way and find satisfaction, temporary satisfaction for a soul. The Christian faith offers an identity, a purpose, genuine meaning, and hope rooted in something, in someone that actually did something in history for us. And He’s going to come again and make all things new. And that should govern our life, shape our life. And much like Antioch, we live in a society, Christian Smith would say, “absent a coherent, sustained, unifying narrative.” In other words, the world often doesn’t know up from down. It’s anxious. It’s a society looking everywhere, and sometimes that’s us. Turn to the Lord. Jesus speaks into that anxiety with truth and love. Sin, yes, has wrecked the world. Things are not as they should be, but God has come in Jesus and is working through His Spirit even now. Trust in Him, rest in Him. One more time, Jared Wilson, just to bring this back, “I remind myself and my church that a message of grace may attract people, but a culture of grace will keep them.” And Glenna Marshall, she says this so well. “God has designed and equipped the Christian life for perseverance that reaches beyond our own benefits.”

Our faithfulness isn’t just for us; it announces to the world that Jesus is worth every drop of our devotion. Believers, do we believe that? Every drop of our devotion. May we turn to the Lord this week. Would you pray with me? Father, we praise You as creator and sustainer of all things. You’re big. And at the same time, we know that You know what each of us has walked through this week, what occupies our mind, and we pray for Your hand to be on us. We pray for Your hand to be on our families, our friendships, our schools. By Your grace, may our speech, our lives demonstrate the love of God in Christ as we begin another week. May Your Word continue to shape us, conform us more into the image of your Son. Make us faithful to whatever you called us to. Teach us what it looks like today to center our lives around You for Your glory and our good. Keep us attentive to Your presence, Lord. Ever aware that You are moving. And Lord, guide us so that we might join You in the work of Your Spirit. We say all this in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus. We all said “Amen.”

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs

“Come Christians Join To Sing” by Christian Henry Bateman
“Christ Our Hope in Life and Death” Music by Keith Getty, Matt Boswell, Jordan Kauflin, Matt Merker and Matt Papa, Choir and Orch. Arranged by John Langley and Paul Campbell
“Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me” by Jonny Robinson, Michael Farren, and Rich Thompson
“Give Me Jesus” by Fernando Ortega
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois
All songs are used with permission. CCLI License no. 2003690

Looking for our Hymns of the Week or resources to worship anytime? We’ve curated a playlist of hymns TVC Worship has led on our YouTube Channel!

Call To Worship: To God Be the Glory

Leader: To our God and Father be glory forever and ever!
People: My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

Leader: To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, The only God, Be honor and glory forever and ever.
People: I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God While I have my being.

All: To our God and Father be glory forever and ever! Amen!

Classic Prayer: John Baillie

O Holy Spirit of God, visit now this soul of mine, and tarry within it until eventide. Inspire all my thoughts.Pervade all my imaginations. Suggest all my decisions. Lodge in my will’s most inward citadel and order all my doings. Be with me in my silence and in my speech, in my haste and in my leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of the morning and in the weariness of the evening; and give me grace at all times to rejoice in thy mysterious companionship.

TVC Prayer Ministry

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