Acts 11:19-30 - Outsiders Who Will Love Outsiders

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. We are continuing in the Book of Acts today, and we are going to be starting in verse number 19.

We were just in a portion of Scripture that was detailing all of the good things that God brought about, even though there was persecution against the early church.

That because they were preaching Jesus as the way of salvation, because they were preaching that people needed to repent and turn from their sin, the Jewish religious leaders of that day brought a lot of persecution.

And it came primarily through the instrument of Saul of Tarsus, who was a Pharisee, and he really made havoc of the church. He was breathing out murderous threats and slaughters against them, and yet God saved him.

But a lot of the work had already been done, that all of the church, we could read back in Acts chapter 8, where it says that all of the church, except for the apostles, were scattered. Some went to closer regions of Judea. Some went to Samaria.

We heard about Philip and how he went there, preached the gospel, saw people saved, saw people receive the Holy Spirit, what an encouragement that that was. There were some people that went as far as Galilee.

And then today, we are continuing to see just how far people went to run away from the danger of the persecution and what God did as a result.

Acts 11 verse 19, So then, those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. So, none of these places are in Israel itself.

Nearby places, Cyprus, would be an island, Phoenicia, a very nearby country to Israel. And then you have Antioch, which would be in Syria. There's also Antioch of Pisidia that I believe shows up later in the biblical narrative as well.

So, they go to these places, nearby nations to Israel, speaking the word to no one except Jews alone.

So, they had always known, okay, you don't go into Gentile houses, you don't really communicate with them, except maybe if it's a business thing, you know, perhaps if they want to worship God, they can come visit, you know, the tabernacle or the

temple or a synagogue. They can come and they can stand, you know, right on the outset of everything, but you don't go to them. So, here they were just continuing in that practice, which didn't really come from what God had said.

It was another one of those things that was kind of tacked on as well of, okay, if we're not supposed to marry those that are following other gods and if we're not supposed to worship other gods, maybe we shouldn't even talk to anyone that does, and

that way we won't be tempted to do any of those things. But it was just another kind of tacked on thing that was legalistic and wasn't what God had outlined in His Word.

So, all of these Christians are now going and they are speaking the Word to the Jews, but only to the Jews. But, verse number 20, but there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene.

So, they were returning to, for those that were coming from Cyprus, it was their home country. And so, for other ones, they were from nearby countries, and so they were not from Israel.

They didn't practice all of the exact same things that the Israelite Christians were doing. And they came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks as well, preaching the good news of the Lord Jesus.

And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.

So here, through people, again, outsiders, just like Philip was one of those Hellenistic Jews, and he served those that were also outcasts, the Hellenistic widows.

He served those both with the Ethiopian eunuch and with the Samaritans, those that other people would have looked down on or seen as outsiders, and he cared for them. And here, God uses people that are on the outside to reach outsiders.

Can I encourage you today, if you feel like an outsider, if you feel like you just don't quite match up, if you aren't really in the in group, God sees you, and God has a purpose for you, and his purpose very well might be that you can reach people

that no one else can. That because of what you've been through, because of how you've been ostracized, maybe because of the difficulties and the hurts that you've received, you are able to share the gospel to those who have been through those same

hurts. That the suffering that you have endured makes it so that you can actually connect with people and minister to them.

And today at church, we went through Philippians 1 where the Apostle Paul said, And I think sometimes we underestimate how valuable suffering is when our suffering is done remembering what God has done for us, how. He suffered for us, and now what.

He invites us to, which is to relate to people, to love people, to minister to them. I think of Paul's words where he says, To the Greeks, I became a Greek. To the Jews, I became a Jew.

I have become all things to all people, so that by some means I might win some people.

And I think that can be very true for us, that we would have a desire not just to have our wounds and our sufferings be things that draw us to the Lord, where we say, God, I need you. I don't know how I'm going to get over this.

That's a wonderful thing when our hearts are drawn to God. But it can also be something that it draws our hearts together with other people.

And we'd be able to love them in a way with a knowledge, with an empathy, with a sympathy and a compassion that others aren't able to have because they haven't walked that road. So it would encourage you with that.

If you've been through some dark valleys, if you've been through some hurts, been through some health struggles, been through some relationship struggles, God might have placed some of those things in your life so that you can love others who have

been in that exact same situation to declare the gospel to those who are outsiders as well. So the hand of the Lord was with these believers and a large number who believe turned to the Lord.

The news about them reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. They sent off the encourager to help support this young church.

Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord.

This is an encouragement that all of us need at one point or another, to with resolute heart remain true to the Lord. Resolute, that we're not bending, we're not wavering in our faith, but that it's firm, that we would remain true to the Lord.

That's true in our doctrine, that whatever God says, we're going to obey it. Whatever. He says, we're going to believe it, no matter how popular or unpopular it is.

We're going to remain true to. We're going to remain true to. His character, that we're not going to allow the constant outrage and fury that characterizes our world to characterize us.

We're going to exemplify today in one of our small groups. We went over God's description of. Himself from Exodus 34 where.

He says. He is compassionate and gracious. He is slow to anger.

He is full of covenant love, faithful love, loving kindness. And there was one other thing that I don't remember that's in that list, but that I know is also very good. Exodus 34 verses 7 and 8, if you want to look up that passage on your own.

And who forgives iniquity. Yeah, who forgives iniquity violation of. His law and sin.

That's who God is. So allowing ourselves to remain true to. His word, that what.

He says, we will believe and obey wholeheartedly. Who. He is, we are going to remain true to.

Him. And who. He loves, we're going to remain loving.

Which is people. It is. His church.

His church is. His body. It is.

His bride. It is the one that. He died for.

And so we're going to love the Word. We're going to love our God. We're going to mimic.

We're going to keep doing the kinds of things that. He would do. And we're going to love the people that.

He loves. So. He encourages them, remain true to the Lord.

For it says, Barnabas was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit, and full of faith. And that's who I want to be. I want to be full of the Holy Spirit.

I want to be full of faith. That I'm not doubting what God can do. I'm not doubting that God can bring us through.

I want to have that confidence in. Him that. He can accomplish whatever.

He wants to. And so my goal in life is kind of that hide-and-seek game to find, all right, what is God planning to do? And I want to find what.

His will is, and go after it wholeheartedly. And it's not a. He's keeping it from me, but.

He has allowed us the privilege of being able to choose and to make choices and to try and rely on the Holy Spirit so that we can find. His will and do it. And I'm so thankful that God's will for us was that we would come to Tabernacle.

And I've been deeply encouraged through all of the people wanting to follow Jesus and wanting to reach others to love the next generation. And I know that as we attempt to remain true and faithful to the Lord and as we expect wonderful things from.

Him, as we rely on His Holy Spirit that. He can do wonderful things. The Bible says this, and considerable numbers were added to the Lord.

God can do great miracles. And back in this time, it was much worse off than we are right now. If you think 21st century America is, oh, it's really hard to reach people.

Now, it was much harder to reach when there was a whole pantheon of gods. You didn't even have a Bible that you could take into some place and say, okay, here's what God says.

It's literally just storytelling of you saying, hey, two, three years ago, this guy came, he claimed he was God, he was crucified, and then he rose from the dead, and we're inviting you all to believe on him.

What an incredibly difficult thing that that would have been, that it was all word of mouth, that people would go, oh, you're kind of crazy.

But the power of the gospel, the power of the Holy Spirit was what changed lives, and considerable numbers were added to the Lord. Barnabas left for Tarsus to look for Saul, verse 25. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.

He had spent time with him before, first in Damascus and then in Jerusalem, and they had sent Saul back to Tarsus for his own safety, and there he brings him back to Antioch. He says, I'm going to do ministry with this great friend of mine.

What a wonderful thing it is when we can have good friends in the ministry that we serve with. It says, for an entire year, they met with the church and taught considerable numbers of people, and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

Little Christ. This would have been kind of more of a demeaning term that they would have been labeled with. They were called Christians.

They did not call themselves Christians first in Antioch. In fact, they were called, ah, yeah, you little messiahs, was kind of the derogatory term that was used. But what an honor to be called Christians.

We would have a heart that says, I want to genuinely be a Christian. I don't want to merely be called a Christian. I want to be guilty of being one.

Verse number 27. Now at this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and indicated by the Spirit that there would definitely be a severe famine all over the world.

And this took place in the reign of Claudius. To the extent that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brothers and sisters living in Judea.

And they did this, sending it with Barnabas and Saul to the elders. I think here, obviously, here's a kind of historical note that they're mentioning, and mentioning how Barnabas and Saul got sent back to Jerusalem.

But I think one thing that we can learn from this is that when believers hear about needs, they have always pooled together to help.

Today, at the time of recording, today is George Lele Church Planting Evangelism and Missions Sunday for the Southern Baptist Convention, for Great Commission Baptists.

And this is a day that we set aside that we say we are going to focus on what we can do for reaching people with the Gospel.

For there, they were looking for actual financial food relief for the believers that were in Jerusalem and that were in Judea. For us today, there are many people, some that are hungry, and that we would help with needs like that.

Our church has partnered with places like Eastern Interfaith over here, I assume, on Eastern, somewhere along the line.

I need to actually visit the building one of these days, but we have partnered with them, with some other Christian churches, to be able to help relieve the poor and to give them food, and to partner with them to help with some of the necessities

that they need. We partner with the North American Mission Board to help with church planting and to see the Gospel go out into all of the needy areas of America.

We partner with the International Mission Board in order to help the Gospel not just focus here in the US but around the world, because everyone needs Jesus.

And we do that with the, oh, I think it's 14 million, 13 million other Southern Baptists across the world, and we pool all of our funds together so that then we can serve more people.

If it was just up to Tabernacle to say, okay, we have to send out church planners and missionaries, we might not be able to do very much on our own, but all together we are able to do so much more for the gospel than we could do alone.

So if that's true on kind of the big scale, I'd encourage you, who can you work alongside? Who can you work with from your church or from your family to be able to be a blessing and a help to others?

God loves it, he says in Psalm 133, when brothers and sisters live together in unity. And we can see that very clearly from this chapter, that there's unity between Barnabas and Saul.

There's unity between the church in Antioch and the church in Jerusalem. There's that unity that comes then in them sending money down in order to help people who are going through famine in times of severe loss.

Looking forward to beginning chapter 12 tomorrow, and hope that you would today have a desire to reach people, have a desire to be full of the Holy Spirit, full of faith, to reach others with your story, and that you would pool together with other

Christians and help accomplish God's work in this world. Have a great day.