Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] The summer before Morgan and I got married, she was in Jamaica serving with a ministry there. And I was back home in the town of Taylorsville, Kentucky, where I grew up.
[00:00:13] And I didn't really have anything to do, so I needed a summer job.
[00:00:17] So I searched for a summer job. I needed something that just in a few months that I could really make a lot of money.
[00:00:24] And I knew some connections, and I got in at a factory close to where I grew up. And if you've ever worked in a factory or if you work in a factory now, you understand that that comes with some difficulties. It's very difficult work. It takes a special kind of person to do it. And I was not that person.
[00:00:42] It was really hard.
[00:00:44] But something that was interesting to me while I was there is I realized that the group of men that I was working with was extremely close to one another. And they weren't close because of something good. They were close because we were all going through it together, right? We're all there working on days when it's 100 degrees outside and there's no AC and we're sweating and we're getting bumps and bruises and cuts and we're all leaving the same place covered in weld smoke, right? But we would then go after work and we would eat dinner together, or we would go on the weekends and play basketball at a local park. We were connected because of something awful that we all were going through.
[00:01:25] Now, what we see in the text this morning is that unity is so much more special when what connects you is something amazing and great, far greater than we could ever imagine.
[00:01:38] And we see the connectedness begin as believers are gathered in Antioch. Look again at verse 19.
[00:01:45] It says, now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. So we're introduced into our first group here that is coming to Antioch, and they're coming because of persecution.
[00:02:05] Now we get context into who these people are through this specific persecution. It says that they're coming because of persecution that arose over Stephen.
[00:02:16] Now, in previous chapters in Acts, we see Stephen in the church in Jerusalem being appointed as one of the church's first deacons.
[00:02:26] Stephen was a man full of the spirit and of faith, and he was very wise. And he was a faithful Gospel preacher, even to the point of his death. Because we see Stephen being drug out into the streets of Jerusalem, stoned and. And murdered.
[00:02:43] So this is the context that these people are coming from. And we Ask why are they only preaching to Jews?
[00:02:50] Well, put yourself in their shoes for a second.
[00:02:53] Imagine people come in this morning, I'm sorry, John, and they grab John Martin and one of our deacons and they drag him into the streets of Madison county and they shoot and kill him.
[00:03:06] Now, we can't really imagine what that's like in our culture, in the place we live. Something like that is so far fetched it's hard for us to truly understand and believe that. But in the history of the Christian life and of the church and even in places today, things like this happen often. And it's exactly what we see happen in our text this morning. So these believers are scared to death.
[00:03:31] They're scared to death. And the church in Jerusalem is primarily made up of, of Jewish believers, former Jews who have heard the Gospel and believe the gospel. And so they're preaching the Gospel in Antioch to those like them.
[00:03:46] They are finding Jews and they are preaching only to them because of fear.
[00:03:52] However, we also see a faithful group here who is preaching to everybody. Look at verse 20.
[00:03:58] There were some of them men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, also preaching the Lord Jesus. Now the Hellenists here is the Greek speaking population, or we would better understand it as the Gentiles. They're preaching not only to the Jews, but to the Gentiles also. And this is because of where these men have come from.
[00:04:21] These men were a part of a group called Diaspora Jews, Jews who have been dispersed across the eastern world because of former persecution, not persecution like this that we see with Stephen, but even further back, such as the Babylonian exile that we read about in the Old Testament. And so because of that, they have lived in these places their entire lives. Cyprus and Cyrene. Cyprus was an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, very close to the border of Antioch. Cyrene is a part of Northern Africa on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. The there's a little bit more distance there. But the thing about these two places is they are Gentile cities.
[00:05:03] These are Jews who have been assimilated into the Gentile culture. So just as our Jews from Jerusalem are preaching to people like them, our believers here in Cyprus and Cyrene who have come to Antioch are preaching to people just like them. They understand that the difference between Jew and Gentile is not as vast as, as what we truly believe. And so they are preaching faithfully also to the Gentiles. And we see God's faithfulness in this. In verse 21, because it says that the hand of the Lord was with them.
[00:05:36] And a great number who believed turned to the Lord. So there's success in the evangelism to the Gentiles here. And we start to see the church in Antioch form.
[00:05:49] It starts to come together and grow.
[00:05:52] The thing that is amazing about this is that Antioch is a perfect representation of what Christ meant when he told his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. Antioch was not the largest city in the Roman Empire. It was the third largest city in the Roman Empire with a population of about half a million people.
[00:06:14] Antioch, however, is located at the end of the Silk Road. It's a port city with connections to the Mediterranean Sea to trade and export. And it is centralized in the eastern world so that all of the surrounding nations can come together in this one place to do business.
[00:06:33] So the nations are represented here in Antioch. And this is what God uses later on in the story of Acts as his place to send out churches to the nations, his church planting hub.
[00:06:48] This is the church full of people that are from different places and different cultural backgrounds and political backgrounds and religious backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses, different ethnicities. The nations represented in one place, and they are unified in Christ, only in Christ. They have nothing else in common.
[00:07:12] Their unity finds itself solely in Christ.
[00:07:17] And this unity aids them as they continue to grow and evangelize to the community.
[00:07:24] Now, the funny thing here is that often when we judge what we think is going to be the potential for unity in a group with people, we look at commonalities. When I think, am I really going to be able to mesh with this group well, or. Or is this person really going to be able to be my friend? We think, well, what do we have in common? What are some shared interests that we have here?
[00:07:49] And the danger of thinking this way is when you come into a church like this that's completely diverse and that has so many different kinds of people, is it scares you to get involved in a bfg, and it scares you to get involved and serve at VBS or to join an equip group because you notice that they're not like you. None of them are like you.
[00:08:11] Now, I've fallen victim to this thinking, and I don't want to surprise anybody this morning, but I'm kind of young and I've recently gotten out of college. I know it might be a shock, but four years ago I was starting college and I was heavily involved in my campus ministry. I loved it. I love campus ministry. I was able to come together with a group of people and sufficiently evangelize to my community and the people that I was with in classes. And it was awesome because I ate at the same places as all the people I was with. And I lived on the same campus that they lived on. And we did a lot of the same things, and we were all in the same Bible studies and in the same book studies, and we worshiped together on nights of the week and. And we enjoyed that and we loved it. And it was so easy because everybody was like me.
[00:09:07] Everybody was like me, doing the same things, believing the same things in the same stage of life that I was in.
[00:09:14] It was so easy.
[00:09:16] Now, after my sophomore year, Morgan and I got engaged. And then my junior year, we got married. And so my life drastically changed in a very short period of time where I was newly married and I was working multiple jobs and finishing college and very busy. And I was no longer in that Christian community.
[00:09:37] And it was a very difficult transition for me to leave that and come here and join a BFG where nobody was like me.
[00:09:46] It was not easy to do that.
[00:09:49] But what I have learned in being in community that is so different from me is, and that are in different life stages as me is that it is something that is priceless. It's something that you must have in your walk with Christ, because Pam Francis has been able to correct me in my marriage and encourage me to be able to love Morgan better and be a better husband.
[00:10:13] David Cannon has been able to encourage me when I was scared to death to be a father and give me advice so that I could be a better dad to my son.
[00:10:24] Those are two people who are completely different than me and who I could not love anymore.
[00:10:31] You have to be in the church, involved in Christian community that is different than you because we see here that God blesses those efforts.
[00:10:42] And so we often wait as college students until we're out of college to get involved in the church. And there's this period in between that's very difficult for us to understand.
[00:10:54] And it's very difficult for us to find our place and our purpose when we have spent so much of our time in campus ministries.
[00:11:02] But it's not just college students.
[00:11:05] There's so many of us that are scared to join bfgs and that are scared to be in equip groups and who are fearful of getting involved in serving on Sunday mornings. We or at VBS because we think that we're just not good at it.
[00:11:21] Yeah, there are some of those who are just really good at getting involved and making friends and doing those things. And that's just not me. I'm just not good at it.
[00:11:30] But it has nothing to do with what you do or what you're good at. It is a work of the Holy Spirit that unites us together because of Christ.
[00:11:42] And we see because that through the work of the Holy Spirit in our unity with Christ, that it produces fellowship with one another. And our text today gives us a very specific example of this happening in the life of Barnabas. We see in Barnabas life here as he comes to Antioch to a place full of people that are completely different than him. That in the work of missions he is able to fellowship with them and grow in affection and a love for them. Look at verse 22, says the report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem. This report would have been of the success that these believers had in conversions and these Gentiles growing their church.
[00:12:28] And so they sent Barnabas to Antioch. Verse 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. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. So in this short section of verses here, we learn a lot about Barnabas and what he is doing here in Antioch. And through this story, we can see his fellowship and affection grow for the church. Three things that we notice here about Barnabas are his strengths, his character and his purpose.
[00:13:07] First, we see his strengths back in verse 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.
[00:13:19] So he comes in to the church in Antioch. He sees all that God is doing, and he encourages them by being glad with them.
[00:13:27] And he encourages them by exhorting them to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose.
[00:13:34] This is what Barnabas does. He is an encourager.
[00:13:38] Barnabas, after spending time in the church of Jerusalem, adopts this nickname. His name originally was Joseph, yet he is called Barnabas, meaning son of Encouragement, highlighting what he does best.
[00:13:54] As we continue, we see his character vouched for here in the text. Verse 24.
[00:13:59] For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.
[00:14:05] You see, Barnabas here is the perfect man for the Job to send to Antioch, but not because he's a perfect man, because the Holy Spirit has filled him. And his faith is represented in the way he lives his Life as a good man, but he's also the perfect man for the job. Because Barnabas lived and grew up in Cyprus, this island in the Mediterranean Sea that many of the founders of this church in Antioch also have come from. He understands what it's like to be living in Gentile culture, but living differently.
[00:14:42] He understands what it is like to encourage believers in these difficult settings because we also see that he has just come from Jerusalem, where persecution has caused the church to disperse.
[00:14:56] Lastly, we see his purpose in being here. The end of verse 24 says, and a great many people were added to the Lord.
[00:15:06] To Barnabas is not just here to encourage the church.
[00:15:11] No, he's here to continue the work of missions.
[00:15:14] If we look back at verse 21, before Barnabas has come to Antioch, it tells us that a great number who believe turned to the Lord.
[00:15:24] We see conversions, evangelism is happening, and the church is growing.
[00:15:29] And then we see here at the end of verse 24, after Barnabas has come to Antioch, that a great many people were added to the Lord.
[00:15:37] The goal of missions continues.
[00:15:41] He's not just here to encourage and leave, but he is here to work with them and work towards the goal of growing this church, to plant more churches so that the Gospel can be made known all across the world. And what it does is that it creates a fellowship between Barnabas and this new church that can only be accredited to unity in Christ.
[00:16:03] Now we see this fellowship in the way that Barnabas responds to. To a need.
[00:16:09] Now, Barnabas here understands a need for help so that this church can continue to grow.
[00:16:16] He can't do it on his own. What Barnabas has here is an opportunity to buckle down and be the sole leader of this church.
[00:16:27] To say that church in Antioch that grew and planted all these churches, that was because of Barnabas. Barnabas did that.
[00:16:35] But he sacrifices the spotlight because he has grown in affection for this church. And he cares about this church more than his own history and his own life and how he will be remembered because he loves these people, because he has worked with these people for so long.
[00:16:56] Now, this is the exact same humble sacrificial service that I have seen in the lives of so many of you when you go on mission trips with Ashlyn to Peru and to New Orleans.
[00:17:10] I think one of my greatest joys being on a mission trip in New Orleans is every morning, one of our church planting partners will come and they will give us their testimony and tell us about their church and tell us what's going on, and we get to eat breakfast with their family. And what this time does each morning is it allows us to, to love them, to know them more, fellowship with them as we eat a meal and to grow in affection for them. And it allows us to then go out and serve with humble sacrificial hearts.
[00:17:43] Because nobody wants to go in the 98 degree heat and 90% humidity and walk around outside in the sun and pass out door hangers or evangelize or pray.
[00:17:56] It's not our natural tendency because we're sinners. But when we're able to fellowship with these people and love these church planters, then an affection is grown in our hearts that allows us to humbly serve them.
[00:18:09] We could go on these mission trips and we could try and do everything on our own for our own glory.
[00:18:16] However, we, when we fellowship with these churches and these church planters, are able to ask for help when needed because we love them and we care more about the work being done.
[00:18:28] This is exactly what Barnabas does. So he needs help and he goes and he gets it. Verse 25.
[00:18:35] So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul.
[00:18:39] Saul's introduced now into this story and what Saul is, is a figure to hold up in stark contrast to Barnabas. Barnabas was a wealthy farmer, an uneducated man who was extremely liked by the church.
[00:18:53] Saul is a former religious elite, a Pharisee, a brilliant academic who is not liked by the church because of what he has been doing. He has been murdering Christians.
[00:19:08] Many of the Jewish believers who have fled from Jerusalem have most likely fled because of persecution caused by Saul.
[00:19:17] But Saul is now a new believer and has put his faith and hope in Christ and is working towards the goal of sharing the gospel and preaching the gospel and growing Christ's church. So we have two men that have no business working together at all. And quite frankly, Barnabas should have hated Saul for all that he has previously done. But he goes and he gets him.
[00:19:41] Look at verse 26, tells us why he goes and gets him. It says, 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.
[00:19:53] And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians.
[00:19:58] So why does Barnabas go and get Saul?
[00:20:01] Well, first and foremost, the foundation that we must always remember is he goes and, and he gets Saul. And Saul and Barnabas are able to work with this church in Antioch because they all can share in the name of Christian.
[00:20:17] They all can be called Christians because they are unified in Christ.
[00:20:23] This is the primary reason that he goes and gets Saul.
[00:20:27] But we see also that he goes and gets Saul because he was of benefit to the mission.
[00:20:34] The text tells us that for a whole year that they met with the church and taught a great many people. Barnabas comes in and encourages this church and he goes and gets Saul so that Saul can come and teach this church.
[00:20:49] So Barnabas and Saul work together in the encouragement and the discipleship of these believers in Antioch. And Barnabas goes and gets Saul because he wants nothing more than for Christ to be so beautifully and bountifully proclaimed as he knows Saul is capable of doing.
[00:21:07] Saul is gained for the sake of missions and through unity in Christ. In the shared work of missions between Barnabas and Saul, he is also gained as a brother and a friend.
[00:21:21] And we start to see a pattern here that fellowship is a natural result of, of Christ centered missions.
[00:21:29] Fellowship is a natural result of Christ centered missions.
[00:21:34] And we get to see this fellowship stretch across all boundaries here in Antioch. It is breaking down barriers of different ethnicities and religious backgrounds and political backgrounds and cultural backgrounds. But we also see it break down barriers of physical distance and, and these two churches here in this story that we're about to read about how they are united despite being so far from each other.
[00:22:03] Look at verse 27.
[00:22:06] Now in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch and one of them, named Agabus, stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world. And this took place in the days of Claudius.
[00:22:20] So the disciples determined everyone according to his ability to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.
[00:22:32] So we see this church grow and we see the believers fellowshipping together. And then we kind of have this odd story kind of thrown in here at the end. And it seems like maybe just an interesting tidbit that they wanted to add and throw in here. But we risk missing the point.
[00:22:49] We don't want to overlook what the text is showing us here in this story, right? We see here that even in the highest extremes of potential disunity, that Christ continually breaks down barriers, even physical barriers, and creates oneness in the lives of his chosen people.
[00:23:10] Prophets come down from Jerusalem and foretell of a famine that is going to take place very soon.
[00:23:17] So Antioch gathers together and they raise up aid and support to send to their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.
[00:23:29] And so what we see here is a reciprocated act of Unity.
[00:23:35] What I mean by that is, if we think back to verse 22, Jerusalem hears of all that is happening in Antioch and they understand and need that. They have a need for leadership and encouragement. So they satisfy this need by sending Barnabas.
[00:23:53] And now we have a mirrored scenario taking place where the church in Jerusalem has a need that has arisen. And so the church in Antioch has an opportunity here to send aid to the church.
[00:24:07] And they do so by the hands of Barnabas, Barnabas and Saul.
[00:24:14] So there's a connectedness, there's a unity between these two churches that allows them to help one another in missions so that they can worship Christ and they can grow their church and plant more churches for the sake of sharing the gospel.
[00:24:32] Despite geographic distance, they're unified Christ.
[00:24:37] And it's not the craziest thing about this story. Remember who these two churches are.
[00:24:42] Jerusalem. The church in Jerusalem is primarily and predominantly made up of Jewish Christians.
[00:24:50] And we know that the culture in Antioch is reflected in its church.
[00:24:54] And it is made up of many nations and it is full of Gentiles.
[00:25:01] So you have a church of Jews and a church of Gentiles, God's chosen people who had nothing to do with the Gentiles. And now because of Christ and what he has done, you have oneness. And they are all God's chosen people. And so they can work together and be unified.
[00:25:20] And that is a unity that we can only understand in Christ.
[00:25:27] Otherwise you're unified by something that will go away or that is awful.
[00:25:33] Like being unified to people working with you in a factory in the hundred degree heat. You don't want to be unified in that way. I promise.
[00:25:44] It's not a good way to be unified. It's awful. You want to be unified in Christ and for the sake of missions, that the gospel would be made known.
[00:25:53] And what we also see in this text is a perfect example of how this is to happen, of how missions is to happen.
[00:26:03] Because we have two different types of service and missions happening here.
[00:26:08] We have those who are going on mission, like Barnabas and Saul, who are taking the aid to the church in Jerusalem, and who we will see in later chapters being sent out on mission from the church.
[00:26:21] And we have those who are sending others on missions, like the believers in the church here in Antioch. And so some of us, like Saul and Barnabas, will be called to go.
[00:26:33] And God will direct your life and get you where you need to be on the mission field. And you will spend the rest of your life serving God through the planting and strengthening of the local church.
[00:26:47] And that is why we do it. We send and we plant churches from the local church, like the example we have here, so that the unity in the fellowship continues.
[00:27:00] Because we don't want to send out lone rangers on the mission field because they will be burnt out and the loneliness of missions will set in. But when we send teams and we send people together to go and plant churches, then we have fellowship built in. But this also means that if you are not called to go, that we have a responsibility here as a church to continue in fellowship with those that we send to encourage them and pray for them and love them. Because the reality is, is that the majority of us in this room will never be missionaries. And the majority of us will not live and spend the rest of our lives on the mission field.
[00:27:41] And so we must continue to encourage those who do go and fellowship with those who do go.
[00:27:48] Now, we see an example here that those of us who are not on the mission field are called to give.
[00:27:55] We give in very, very different ways. And there are a lot of ways that we do give. We give our money each year to the ends of the earth, offering to support missionaries and church planners that we partner with.
[00:28:10] We give our prayers as we pray through monthly and daily our Ashland prayer calendar. And we pray for those that we have sent out on missions or partner with in missions.
[00:28:23] We give our time when we go and serve for a week in New Orleans or Peru.
[00:28:29] And one of the things that encourages me so much that I see happen often when we have these short term trips is wives sacrificing their husbands for the sake of missions. Now, I didn't understand how difficult this was until this year when this was my case, but wives staying home and taking care of the kids and sacrificing that so that their husband can go and love and care for missionaries on the field.
[00:28:57] It is a beautiful act of humble sacrificial service, even if you can't go.
[00:29:05] And we give those who we love and we send them on the field.
[00:29:11] We have so many amazing people here at Ashland who would be priceless assets on the mission field. And we hate the idea of having to give them up and send them out on missions.
[00:29:23] It's a difficult thing to come to terms with and to understand. But we also understand and know that the work of missions, it is a sacrifice that we have to make to send them. Because it's more important that Christ is worshiped across the entire earth than it is that we have our friends and family close to us.
[00:29:46] Often the Question is, how can I go to Peru or how can I go to New Orleans and genuinely consider staying for the rest of my life when I may never see my family again or my friends again or my church again?
[00:30:00] And I think an even harder question is, how can I send my son or my daughter or my brother or sister or friend or loved one or pastor to go and serve on the mission field where I may never see them again?
[00:30:17] And the only way that we can do this is because we are all unified in Christ.
[00:30:24] And what this means is that even if you never see them again on this earth, a day is coming where you will eternally live with them in fellowship with them, in fellowship with Christ in heaven.
[00:30:39] It's not that we give up those who we care for and that we love and we will never see them. But we are promised that because of Christ and what he has done, we will see them again.
[00:30:50] So we can give our time and our money and our prayers and our loved ones, because first Christ gave Himself for us.
[00:31:00] We can send out people from Ashland who we love so dearly, because first Christ was sent for us.
[00:31:10] Christ was sent by His Father to leave his home and cross significant boundaries, to come to ours, to live a life full of persecution, where he was mocked and beaten and betrayed, to be tortured and nailed on a cross and killed and buried.
[00:31:32] See, Christ understands the importance of the mission, that the Gospel be made known and that people be reconciled to him.
[00:31:43] Because in his death and burial, we see that Christ has paid the price for our sin.
[00:31:52] And we also see in his life the righteousness that now is placed on us so that when His Father sees us, he sees His Son.
[00:32:03] We also have the promise of eternal unity because Christ did not stay dead, but he rose from the grave. And so we too, in sharing this resurrection with Christ, will be raised from the dead and eternally fellowship with him in heaven.
[00:32:20] This is what drives our efforts and missions, this great news that. That it would be believed by every tongue and in every nation. This is why we go. This is why we sinned, so that we all can have unity and we can all love and glorify Christ and be appreciative for what he has done for us in the Gospel. And it's beautifully displayed in our text today.
[00:32:47] Unity is ours in Christ, and unity allows for eternal fellowship that we see a glimpse of in missions.
[00:32:59] This is why we must continue to faithfully send teams down to New Orleans and Peru and pray that people will stay.
[00:33:09] This is why we continue to faithfully give and pray that the gospel would be made known to the ends of the earth.
[00:33:17] This is why we must continue to be faithful as we preach the gospel in here in Madison county, and go out into your workplaces and into the community and share the gospel with every single person that we see. Because there are those of you this morning who do not understand this unity and who are not a part of this unity.
[00:33:41] And it breaks my heart that you don't know A unity that can never and and will never be broken.
[00:33:52] You see, Christ has bought and secured this unity by dying for every single person in his church so that we, together, as one body, could worship Him. So we must go and sin so that this can happen.
[00:34:13] We must go for the efforts of sharing the gospel with all of those so that everyone can experience this unity.
