Okay, so with Acts 11, those verses open in front of you.
Thanks so much, Colin and Ellen, for reading them.
Here's a thing that until last week I didn't know was a thing.
People leaving Google reviews of this church online.
Intrigued?
Want to see three of them?
You want to see three of them, don't you?
Right, someone going by the name E.W. wrote,
Nice interior architecture in a nice location.
Okay, these people might be here today, I don't know if you see.
Dr. Whale Abdu said,
We're a great venue for birthday parties.
Give an amen to that one.
Great venue for birthday parties.
Local tour guide Chris Middleton said,
We're a fantastic community hub.
So you bring that together on Google,
we're getting 4.8 out of 5 stars currently.
Yeah?
Now I'm going to give our building team a few seconds to enjoy that.
And then I'm going to burst our bubble
and say,
That's not really what we're interested in.
To nick a line from the rhyme,
you might remember from when you were little,
We're not interested in the church.
Not really all that interested in the steeple.
But what we're really interested in
is what people would see when they look inside
and see all the people.
Here's a question we're going to be challenged with today.
Would our community call us Christians?
Sound a strange question?
Would our community call us Christians?
Come with me to Acts chapter 11.
I'll show you what I mean by that.
If there was a lonely planet guide to the Roman Empire
in the first century,
three most biggest influential and biggest cities you would have.
Right?
Number one, Rome.
Number two, Alexandria.
Number three,
this place called Antioch.
You'll find it in the map.
It's kind of the top north one.
What you see about Antioch
is you're looking at something about half a million people.
You see in the map,
it's geographically a cracking location to be, isn't it?
You can kind of go around the corner.
You can go down.
You can go into Asia.
It's a good big city.
People even from China there.
All sorts of different people.
Jews, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Indians.
People from far away as China.
And the locals,
and I think they're called Antiochians.
I think that is the thing.
Okay?
Apparently, they are famous for loving a joke.
Right?
Loving a bit of banter.
They love nothing more.
And this is what historians around the time will say.
Nothing more than to dish out a witty nickname.
That's what you do when you're from Antioch.
And here's why that's significant.
Because when the local people in Antioch looked at these first disciples of Jesus,
watching these people like dandelions in the sun,
just cropping up everywhere, out of nowhere.
We just cannot predict where the next one is going to come from.
Here is what they called these early disciples.
Verse 26.
The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
Now, if you're here today and you're wondering,
what is a Christian?
You've come here with all sorts of ideas in your mind.
Ideas, I imagine, from the media.
Ideas, I'd imagine, from your upbringing.
Perhaps what you've seen in the place that you live.
Perhaps from television.
The Vicar of Dibley.
What was that show on BBC a few years ago called Rev?
If all these kind of things are in your mind.
You've picked a great Sunday to be with us.
Because this is the origin of the name.
Do you know what it means?
Christian means literally many Jesus.
So when the locals saw Jesus at work in the lives of these people,
when they heard Jesus being proclaimed and praised from their lips,
they laughed and they teased and they said,
ha-ha, you guys are just little Jesuses.
You know the kind of thing?
Here comes the God Squad.
Look out.
Here come the Jesus freaks.
Way-oh.
Here are the Bible bashers.
Here are the Holy Joes.
Okay?
It's what people see in Antioch when they look at these early disciples.
You guys are just little Jesuses.
Now that's a nickname worth having, isn't it?
So the name Christian in its original context is a nickname.
And Luke lets us see in this passage, I think,
what it was about the lives of these disciples in Antioch
that caused the locals to say that.
There's four of them.
We're going to look at them in just a second.
But before we get there, see what's going on in the book of Acts.
Here's the question.
How did the gospel, how did the news of Jesus even get to a place like Antioch on the map?
Well, verse 19 in the text, if we get into it,
it connects us back to the persecution that happened in Jerusalem,
if you remember in chapter 8.
The early followers of Jesus, they were chased out of Jerusalem.
And they ran to Judea and Samaria.
Now, of course, they are being pushed out of their city.
But what's going on, remember, Alistair took us there a number of weeks ago,
is that Jesus' plan for the spread of the gospel is happening.
Man's worst plays into God's plans and his best.
So Jesus said, you're going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth.
How is that going to happen?
How are people going to go?
In this case, it is persecution.
It is driving out the people.
It's fulfilling Jesus' plan.
And here in verse 11 of chapter 11, verse 19 of chapter 11,
here's what we learn about those people who went.
They went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch.
And like bees carrying pollen.
And notice, by the way, that these aren't apostles.
The apostles are the guys who are staying in Jerusalem.
These are just ordinary believers, ordinary disciples of Jesus.
They carry the message about Jesus wherever they go, like bees carrying pollen.
And hey, presto, by God's grace, through the work of his Holy Spirit,
spiritual pollination happens everywhere they go.
The gospel is going long.
That's what Luke's telling us.
The gospel is going long.
And the gospel is going deep.
Because in Antioch, look at what happened at verse 21.
The Lord's hand was at work.
These are the descriptions of a historian who wants people down the line to know the details.
So he's taking his time to tell us this.
The Lord's hand was at work.
And great numbers turned to the Lord.
And Luke tells us that again at verse 24.
To bookend that wee bit.
A great number of people were brought to the Lord.
So Luke wants us to know that what happened in Antioch was no drop in the ocean.
What happened in Antioch was an unmissable act of God.
Great number of people become Christians.
And reports of this filter back from Antioch, filter back all the way down to Jerusalem.
And verse 22, what they do is they send Barnabas from Jerusalem to go back to Antioch,
almost as their ambassador, to go to Antioch and to see if what is happening is the real deal.
And what happens is that Barnabas confirms what the people in Antioch are saying about the disciples,
that yes, they are many Jesuses.
Look at verse 23.
When he sees his disciples going for it, what is he?
He's glad.
Right?
I take it that's always one of the marks of the Holy Spirit in our lives,
when we see what God is doing somewhere else,
and it makes us glad.
It's not all about here, is it?
Makes us glad when we see what God is doing elsewhere.
These guys are Christians, says Barnabas.
They've got it.
It's real.
God is at work.
Last week we thought about the first Gentile Christian.
Do you remember his name was Cornelius?
If you want to listen back, you can on the website.
If not, just read it in your own time.
Cornelius, the first Gentile Christian.
Now do you see what's going on?
We've got the first Gentile church.
The gospel's growing.
It's going long.
It's going deep.
And here are the four reasons the people in Antioch called these people Christians.
And as we look at these, remember the question we're asking ourselves.
Would our community call us Christians?
So here is number one.
What do they see about these guys?
They see, first of all, that these people are worshipping somebody else.
What did Barnabas see?
Verse 23.
He saw what the grace of God had done.
Now just take in that phrase.
It's not about these people that they've turned over a new leaf.
They've decided to be better.
Decided to have a crack at this Christianity thing.
No, no, no, no.
This is about God giving them new hearts as he, and like only he can do,
as he breathes in life to spiritual dead bodies.
He takes souls and he transfers them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.
And that means that if you are a Christian, that is what's going on in your life.
It doesn't matter if you've had an amazing testimony.
It doesn't matter if you've been brought up as a Christian, all of you.
What is going on is a miracle that God has taken you from darkness
and transferred you to light through the work of his son on the cross.
It's what he's done.
It's what's going on here in Antioch.
The grace of God is at work, which is tremendously freeing
because that means you and I did not get into God's good books because of our works.
It means that we've been saved purely by his grace and his compassion and his love
because he is that kind of God.
What's going on in Antioch?
There's new creations everywhere.
You can imagine, right?
Cosmopolitan city that prizes material prosperity and beauty,
thinks nothing of cutting someone down with a bit of wit.
And you're living in a place all under the banner of Caesar is Lord.
That's really who's worshipped here.
Yes, we can do stuff under his, but that's the banner we're operating under.
You can imagine if you're somebody who says, actually, no,
there was a man who came back from the dead and he's Lord of all.
And he controls my tongue, my thoughts and my wallet.
You can imagine that that is your confession in a place like Antioch.
You're going to stand out like a mile, stand out a mile like a sore thumb.
I loved it.
It was down, um, uh,
Wee Cafe in Birdie House with Grace yesterday.
Just opened it.
It's a kind of 20 schemes thing where they're trying to get people back into work.
They've opened this cafe in this community.
And I loved it just on the door.
Nailing their colours to the mass in the community, what they're all about.
Jesus, I'm the bread of life.
There it is.
Bang.
This is who we are.
Loved it.
These people are worshipping someone else.
There's something else that makes them tick.
There's someone else who they're all about.
I guess the question I was asking myself this week is,
Do people in my life know what I'm all about?
Do they know that I worship somebody else?
Think about it.
In your workplace, in your school, in your university,
do people know?
Your family friends, do they know?
That these people are worshipping somebody else.
That's what they're saying in Antioch.
Secondly, these people, they think they're heading somewhere else.
And here's your boy Barnabas.
Right?
You might remember Luke introduced us to him at the end of chapter 4.
His name's not Barnabas.
That's the interesting thing about Barnabas.
His name's not Barnabas.
His name is Joseph.
Barnabas, if you remember, is his nickname.
It means son of encouragement.
So the believers see this guy doing his thing,
and they say the defining feature of your life
is that you're an encourager.
Love that.
You've had a hard day.
Barnabas is the guy you want to call.
Your life's rocking all over the place.
You don't know if you're going to make it tomorrow.
He's the guy that you want to turn up at the door.
Barnabas is an encourager.
And I think that's why they send him to this church in Antioch.
Tough place to be a Christian.
Who are we going to send?
We're going to send the encourager.
Luke gives us a wee description of him again at verse 24.
He's a good man.
He's full of the Holy Spirit and faith.
And boy, is he using those gifts in Antioch.
And we're not just told about him.
We're told what he's saying.
What he's saying,
he was glad
and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.
That's what he's saying.
That's his message to the disciples.
You want to boil it down?
It just means keep on going.
Remain true to the Lord.
Keep on persevering.
Right?
I was thinking about it this week.
This is like Dory from Finding Nemo.
Do you remember her phrase?
What's her phrase?
Keep on swimming.
Just keep on swimming.
So she says,
just keep on swimming.
Keep on going.
And that's Barnabas.
She says,
just keep on going.
Just keep on going.
I know it's tough.
Just keep on going.
Life following Jesus is tough.
Finding life exhausting as a parent,
wondering if you can keep on going.
The ups and downs of your health
making you anxious about the future.
The death of a loved one
left a huge hole in your heart.
The uncertainty about what tomorrow looks like,
let alone plans coming together for next year.
Is it crippling you?
All meaning that you might be here physically today,
but spiritually inside you are struggling.
Barnabas is the kind of person
who draws alongside
and he brings people back.
And I take it this morning.
I think all of us need that.
To draw alongside
and to say,
I know life's tough.
But let's keep on going.
Let's keep on going.
Where does Barnabas bring them back to?
He brings them back to the Lord.
Love this guy.
Can you imagine him doing this thing in the church?
I'm all ears.
I love you.
Tell me what's going on in your life.
I want to listen.
And that sounds brutal.
Oh, isn't life
just so complicated and hard sometimes?
But here's what you and I need.
Just look at Jesus.
Would you look at him?
Would you remember who he is?
Remember what he's done?
Would you remember what he's doing?
The right hand of God.
He's praying for us.
Do you remember what he said was going to happen?
Do you remember how he said
he wouldn't leave us as orphans?
He would come back?
Do you remember how he said that?
Do you remember how the Bible is the story of the God
who is faithful to keeping his promises?
Not one of God's good plans will ever fail.
Do you remember that?
Do you remember how Jesus said
that heaven's ahead of us?
Do you remember how he said
in the words of the old hymn
he will hold us fast.
He will hold us fast.
Where I fear my faithful fail
he will hold us fast.
Barnabas draws alongside
and he just says
let's just keep on going.
Let's just keep on going.
You know about the Sally Lloyd-Jones
thoughts to make your heart sing.
We do it with the kids sometimes.
She's got a wonderful way
of just phrasing it at the end.
There's three travellers just going on
and one at the front
says to the guys at the back
listen, talking of Jesus
he's already gone ahead of us
into the new day.
He knows the way.
He knows what will happen.
He is all we need.
Let's keep on walking.
It's another Christian life sometimes.
Day after day after day
just plodding
slogging it out
in the paths of faithfulness.
Living by faith
not in today
but living by faith
in what God has said
is true about the future
and the heavenly city
which is ahead of us.
Do we need,
some of us need
some of that today.
Do we need to draw
alongside one another
and do what Barnabas M. Seuer
is doing in Antioch.
Life's tough.
I get it.
I know.
Oh, it's hard
but Jesus
aren't just Barnabas
the kind of guy
who would make
a really good friend.
Imagine that
in Antioch
you're just
people looking at you.
Life is incredibly tough
for them
but somehow
they're just
keeping on going
with Jesus.
It's people
they think
they're heading
somewhere else.
Number three,
these people
they're devoted
to learning
something else.
See Barnabas
verse 25
and again
I love this
in the text
he goes to Tarsus.
See,
remember our map
it was just
around the corner
he goes to Tarsus
because he knows
that that's where
Paul is.
Now Paul's there
because the disciples
had smuggled him
out of Jerusalem
and sent him
to Tarsus
on a boat
when the Jews
made an attempt
of his life
that's back
in chapter 9
and Barnabas
gets there
and thinks
no, no
I'm not the guy
for this job
I need Paul
and I love
the humility
that Barnabas
shows here
because this is
a chance
for Barnabas
to put his name
on the map.
Right,
who wouldn't
want to be part
of the first
Gentile church
to be the guy
that God used
to go and say
hey,
I played a part
in this,
right,
established Barnabas
International Ministries
you know,
could get all this
kind of stuff out
but Barnabas
knows the guy
who Jesus said
was going to be
the minister of his
to the Gentiles
was Paul
and Barnabas
says,
you know what,
no,
Jesus said it was him
and he goes to get him
and he brings him back
and the two of them
do it together
and the two of them
get involved
in the lives
of the people
in Antioch
get involved
in what's going on
and they teach
so what they do
is the word in the text
that Luke tells us
they teach
these young believers
they get them
in their Bibles
to see
who Jesus is
come and see
come and learn
what he's done
why it matters
what it is
to be a child of God
what it means
to live the Christian life
what happens
after death
the whole shebang
what Paul would call
later
the whole
council of God
and you see
how they do it
not just for a one-off course
they do it
verse 26
for a whole
year
just nurturing
these
young believers
in the ways
of the Christian faith
it's why
in our meetings
that the Bible
is central
it's why
we do Bible studies
during the week
in our small groups
it's why we do
one-to-ones
reading the Bible
together
because this is
what we need
the gospel
to quote Tim Keller
it's not the ABC
of the Christian life
it's the A to Z
of the Christian life
we never graduate
from this
these guys
have a heart
for nurturing
the young believers
and the fundamentals
of the faith
you know
my dad sent me
a picture on
family whatsapp group
sure you've got them
he did it
I think it was November
I get so confused
about what storm
was what
he just sent me
a picture
and I'm pretty sure
it was storm
Arwen
is that the one
storm Arwen
he sends me
a picture
of a huge tree
in the garden
that's come down
and what's happened
it's come down
but all you see
is just roots
in the picture
just roots
these roots
that have just
been nourishing
this tree
for years
and years
these roots
there seems to be
hundreds of them
these roots
there's not just
tons of them
there's metres
and metres
of these roots
and what's happened
is he's been brave
he's gone online
he's bought a chainsaw
to try and free the tree
and he's cut a few things off
to loosen it
and all of a sudden
bam
the tree's gone back
the roots have brought it back
and he flings the chainsaw
and he jumps out
over the other side
the roots were so down in it
it's true isn't it
what we want for our lives
the roots of our lives
to be deep in the word
and is it not true
that storms reveal
in our lives
storms reveal
where our roots
really are
alright
I remember one of the first
hospital visits
ever did in this church
was to go and see
a lady called Ruby
Ruby was
she was dying of cancer
down at the western
some of you will know her
remember her
some of you won't
but just what a wonderful
godly lady
remember going to see her
she's sitting there
she is a shadow
of her former self
as she just said
I'm scared
and I loved her honesty
she said I'm scared
I'm scared
refreshing
about how she was feeling
but she said something else
she just said
but I know
Christ
has me
and that's roots
they taught them
for a year
these guys
they're learning
something else
it comes out
in the storms
of their life
people in Antioch
looking and saying
they're learning
something else
is making them tick
roots down in the words
and fourthly
these people
they're up for helping
someone else
and I love this
verse 27
this man
this prophet
called Agabus
and remember
I think we're to understand
that these are unique
things that happened
in this time
God tells them
about a severe famine
that's going to hit
the Roman world
and historians back up
the authenticity
of this
and the response
of the believers
is they hear
they see what it is
right
we hear of a recession
we hear
of financial troubles
that might be coming
what's our first thought
as a culture
it's make sure
that we've got enough
make sure that you have
enough in the pension pot
make sure that you have
enough in your savings account
make sure that you've got
the toilet roll
when it's about to go
make sure you've got the milk
before everyone else buys it
that's not these guys
first reaction
it's not to look after
number one
they think
of their poorer
brothers and sisters
who are back in Jerusalem
for whom this is going to
hit them really
really hard
that's their first thought
we see on a personal level
we can work that out
is there someone
in our church family
here
who's going through
a hard time
maybe financially
maybe we've got a duty
to help
it's a church family
we want to be the kind
of church family
who's looking out
for one another
and wider as well
I've been added
to a whatsapp group
that's been set up
by a ton of churches
down south
and up here as well
just thinking about
how we can support
our brothers and sisters
in Ukraine
prayer updates
coming in
different pictures
being sent
how can we support
our brothers and sisters
over there
not just in Ukraine
but the surrounding
countries as well
who are taking refugees
and I take it
that should be our heart
to want to help
our brothers and sisters
we'll think about ways
potentially that we could
do that
I'm sure
but there's something
bigger going on
I think we need to see here
and this is
this is where we need to see
this is more than just
an office whip round
for a good cause
this is Gentiles
wanting to care
for their Jewish
brothers and sisters
because
their common faith
in Jesus
has connected them
and they've decided
to do this
notice that word
in the text
that it's not just
something they feel
obliged to do
they want to do this
it's a choice
it's a gut conviction
because they realise
that they have got
a Christ shaped duty
to look after
their fellow brothers
and sisters
and again
do you see
how the gospel
Luke is showing us
is smashing down
worldly barriers
you guys
are just little
Jesuses
you're little
Jesuses
and so here's
the question then
would our
community
call us
Christians
by that definition
let me flip it around
are we giving
our community
and you can
broaden that out
our neighbours
our work colleagues
whatever it is
you want
are we giving
our community
cause
to call us
Christians
and here's
where I'm reminded
just as we close
of my friend
Thomas
right
Thomas was one of
my best friends
growing up
and we were
kind of students
at roughly the same
time
I was up in
Aberdeen
he was down
in Edinburgh
and what we used
to do
like most students
do
is during the
summer in particular
get work
so I used
to work
at banks
Thomas used
to work
at bars
one of the
bars he used
to work
at in the
summer
was Edinburgh
University
TV at
bar
that's where
he used
to work
and he used
to work
there during
August
during the
Edinburgh
festival
now that is
a tough
environment
to be a
Christian in
with every
angle you
look at that
from
long hours
that kind
of work
temptation
everywhere
but the
people in
his team
watched Thomas
and they
watched what
he didn't
do
how he
didn't
join in
going big
on the
booze
he didn't
join in
the crude
chat
and they
watched
what he
did
do
how he
spoke
about
Jesus
he was
just a
good guy
to work
with
and the
end of the
whole summer
of working
together
his non-Christian
supervisor
who I found out
this week
from him
was called
Lucy
posted a picture
on Facebook
and I spent
hours trying to
find it this
week and I
couldn't
picture on
Facebook
best Christian
I've ever
met
now that's
a Google
review worth
having isn't
it
what I loved
about the
story I
texted Thomas
this week
said do you
remember that
photo he
said I
remember that
photo it was
back in 2009
and he said I
remember it
because Lucy
she lives in a
totally different
part of the
world now she's
doing something
completely different
but every now
and then I
hear from her
life's going
really hard
Thomas would you
pray for me
I just need
someone to
chat to
Thomas if
you get 10
minutes to
speak on the
phone would
you like to
FaceTime or
Zoom
Christian
let's just
never underestimate
the power of
just a simple
witness to the
grace of Jesus
and let that
encourage you this
morning if you're
in a place and
you're just finding
it hard to
witness for him
to just keep on
going never
underestimate what
God can do
through the
simple witness
of a Christian
would the people
in our community
call us
Christians
because the
disciples were
first called
Christians
here at
Antioch
let's pray
shall we
and so
heavenly father
we just thank
you for this
morning and
thank you for
the challenge
that this has
brought us
the challenge
to be
witnesses for
you in our
community
father thank you
for the comfort
that these
verses have
brought today
that if our
faith is in
you
if we believe
in the Lord
Jesus that is
not because
we've decided
to make a
decision that
is because first
and foremost you
are a God who
is gracious and
good and the
grace of God
has been at
work in our
lives and we
thank you for
the new life
that is found
in Jesus
and so father
I pray for
us today
particularly as
we come now
to remember
your son Jesus
and what he's
done for us on
the cross
as we take the
bread and the
wine together
father would you
be moving in
our midst
bringing that
sense of
knowledge of
who he is
and so father
I pray that you
would just be
with us as we
do that now
in Jesus
precious name
amen