“The Marks of a Missional Church (Acts 11:19-30; 12:25-13:3)” | 5/22/22
Acts 11:19-30; 12:25-13:3 | 5/22/22 | Will DuVal
Good morning! I’m Will DuVal, the lead pastor here at West Hills Church, and I do mean “HERE”, because the church isn’t a BUILDING, it’s a PEOPLE; it’s US, Amen? So welcome to Church at the Park! This is always one of my favorite worship services of the year, and not just because I only have to preach one sermon! No, it’s wonderful to be out in God’s glorious creation, to be out in our community - to live in a country where we can HOLD church in the park without getting arrested - and it’s wonderful to be TOGETHER, as ONE church, and to celebrate the church.
There are a lot of qualities that make a church GREAT. But this morning, we’re gonna zoom in on just FIVE of them, as we consider the example of perhaps the greatest church of ALL in the pages of Scripture: the church at ANTIOCH.
We’ve been studying the book of Acts together this year at West Hills, and all the way back in ch2, we saw the very first church birthed in the city of Jerusalem. But while Jerusalem may have been the FIRST church, the BEST church may have been ANTIOCH. They were certainly the most MISSIONAL. Antioch will serve as the central, sending HUB for all THREE of Paul’s missionary journeys that we will explore in the weeks to come.
Antioch was the capital city of Syria. It was the 3rd largest city in the Greco-Roman world. And it was a thoroughly PAGAN city, full of idol worship to false gods. Until the GOSPEL arrived. And when the good news of Jesus showed up and the church of Antioch was born, it was marked by 5 qualities that we observe at the end of Acts ch11 and the beginning of ch13. I hope you brought your Bibles with you this morning - if you don’t OWN a Bible, we’d love to GIVE you one this morning, at our makeshift Info Bar. But I’ve recruited some excellent volunteer readers - kids, can y’all come on up?! - to help us out with the READING of God’s word this morning…
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So would you stand with us, as you’re able…
Hear the word of the Lord: Acts 11:19-30; 12:25-13:3
“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. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists[c] also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 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, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 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.
27 Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 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). 29 So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers[d] living in Judea. 30 And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul...
And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark…
Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” This is the word of the Lord… Let’s pray…
Alright: 5 Marks of a Model, Missional Church. (And I wanna thank pastor / commentator Tony Merida, whose outline of this passage I am stealing this morning. But I did come up with my own 3 SUB-points underneath each, so we’ll really look at the 15 marks of a missional church!)
(#1 -) The FIRST is Effective EVANGELISM (11:19-21).
There IS no church without effective evangelism. The word evangelism comes from the Greek word “euangelion” which means “good news”. The church centers on the “good news” about Jesus. That Jesus loved us SO much, that despite the fact that we are sinners, and we have ALL failed to give GOD - our Creator and Good, Heavenly Father - the glory that is due his holy name, and yet JESUS loved us so much that He died on a cross to bear our sins and take our place so that we might be reconciled to God and forgiven our sins and SAVED; and then Jesus ROSE from the dead to free us from the very power of sin and death … That’s the GOSPEL!
And according to the Bible, everyone needs to hear this good news and believe it; they need to personally TRUST in JESUS. Because Acts 4:12 “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven… by which we must be saved”.
So everyone MUST hear about Jesus through evangelism. But in order for our evangelism to be EFFECTIVE, we learn from the Antiochians, we’ve gotta do 3 things:
First, we’ve gotta speak TO people. V19 here says, “because of the persecution that arose over Stephen [back in chapters 7 and 8; the church was scattered…] as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch”. God had called the church to go “to the nations”, but they’d been sticking to their safe, little Christian bubble in Jerusalem. So God popped the bubble, and FORCED them to go. But v19 tells us they were STILL “speaking the word to no one except the Jews.” Even after the apostle Peter’s conversion of the Gentile Cornelius in the first half of Acts 11, MOST of the church still hasn’t gotten the memo that the gospel is NOT just for the JEWS.
But v20: “there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists - the Greeks, the GENTILES - also”.
THEY GOT it!
That unbelievers must call on the name of the Lord JESUS to be saved. (Rom 10:13)
But they can’t believe in Jesus if they’ve never even HEARD of him (10:14)...
And they can’t HEAR about him unless someone’s willing to TELL them about him (10:14).
There’s no such thing as evangelism by osmosis. All these beautiful people on the playground - they aren’t somehow sanctified by me and you and our kids just mingling and playing amongst them. WE don’t change people; the GOSPEL does. And the gospel is a message; it’s NEWS, that has to be shared. So we’ve gotta be willing to be bold, and speak to people.
We’ve got to speak IN understandable terms. V20 says the church was “preaching the Lord Jesus.” Thus far in Acts, the church has been preaching Jesus as the CHRIST, the Messiah. Because they’ve been speaking in synagogues to the Jews. But now they’re in Antioch, Gentile territory. Where they don’t care about “the hope of Israel”. But this title kurios, “LORD”; now that resonated with them. “In their [pagan] mystery religions, the term kurios was used in reference to a divine god who could bestow salvation” (Merida, 158). It was also a title claimed by Roman emperors to boast of their own alleged divinity. So the church in Antioch not only shared the gospel; they did so in a way that was intelligible and relevant to the surrounding culture.
If the Spirit moves and you DO find yourself over on the playground later this morning, sharing the gospel with someone who has never stepped foot in a church, you might wanna stay away from terms like “hypostatic union” and “penal substitution”. You’ve heard of the KISS principle in business: “Keep it SIMPLE, Stupid”; it equally applies to our evangelism - Keep it SIMPLE:
*God is Supreme: He deserves our whole heart, mind, soul and strength; our LIVES.
*We are Sinners: we offer him SO much less than that; we all fall short.
*But Jesus is Savior: God so loved the world that he sent JESUS to die for us.
*And Faith is Sufficient: “whosoever BELIEVES in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
So we speak TO people IN understandable terms, WITH the Holy Spirit. V21 says, “And the hand of the LORD was with them, and a great number believed.” Notice, we hear NOTHING about the charisma or giftedness of the Antiochian evangelists here. As a matter of fact, we don’t even hear their NAMES! Merida says: “If you’ve ever wondered whether unnamed Christians really make a difference for the kingdom, the answer is yes. These men… had no plan. No program. No budget. Just a zeal for the Lord! …In our day of celebrity Christianity, we desperately need to rediscover the world of the men of Cyprus and Cyrene… The most important people in the church aren’t always the most famous... The church in Antioch got started because so-called nobodies witnessed to their neighbors.” (p159) That’s it!
What’s important isn’t whether or not you’re SKILLED, but whether or not you’re FILLED. Your skill might win people to following YOU; but only God’s filling, with the Holy Spirit, can actually transform people’s hearts to follow JESUS. Effective evangelism requires HIS Spirit.
#2 - The second mark of a missional church is Dynamic DISCIPLESHIP (11:22-26). Dynamic Discipleship.
Discipleship refers to the process of becoming more and more like JESUS.
Dynamic means “characterized by energy or effective action”.
And we discover here in Antioch that in order for our discipleship to be dynamic it must do 3 things:
First, it must ENCOURAGE the work that God is already doing in a person’s life. Look at vv22-23: the church in Jerusalem HEARS about the church in Antioch, so they send Barnabas to check it out. Now, we’ve already MET Barnabas, back in ch4: “This Joseph, nicknamed by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement)... sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money to the apostles” (vv36-37). Then in ch9, when Saul, the former persecutor of the church tried to JOIN the church in Jerusalem and they initially rejected him, it was Barnabas who showed Saul grace, and vouched for him, and eventually convinced the others to welcome him in. So Barnabas is generous, he’s merciful, he’s hospitable, but MOST of all, he is encouraging.
And that’s really all he does here, at first, for the church in Antioch. Barnabas is just a glorified CHEERLEADER: “When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he encouraged them all [better translation] to remain faithful to the Lord”. If GOD, the Holy Spirit, really has to be the One to do all the heavy lifting in a person’s life, the major work of renovating a person’s HEART, then perhaps the best thing that WE can really add to the discipleship process is to PRAY for God to work in folks’ lives, and then ENCOURAGE them when we see Him doing it.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 “encourage one another and build one another up”
So simple. But so SIGNIFICANT!
I can’t even TELL you how grateful I am for those of you here who God has BLESSED with the gift of encouragement, and through whom He has personally blessed and encouraged and SUSTAINED me, in the ministry thus far.
Bob & Jan, John & Judy, Dennis & Deb, John & Edie, Bill & Karen, Frank & Sara, Brad & Paula, Bret & Theresa, Bryan & Joni, Austin Gooch, Carley Dystra, Laurie McKenney, John Marino, Belinda Wells… SO many of you!
Paul uses the analogy of a BODY - the body of Christ - to refer to the church; I think you encouragers must be our connective tissue, cuz y’all have to hold the rest of us together sometimes when we wanna just GIVE UP.
2) Second, our discipleship must follow the example of exemplary disciples. They say discipleship is just one Christian who’s a little farther down the path, in their walk with Christ, showing the WAY to a less mature believer. That means you better make sure you’re being discipled by someone who’s on the right PATH! If they’re showing YOU the way!
Jesus’ warned that the Pharisees were forming their disciples into “twice the sons of hell” that THEY were! (Matt 23:15) A disciple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. And you know a tree by its FRUIT.
But in Barnabas’ case, the fruit was good, cuz the roots were good.
V24: “Barnabas… was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith”.
He was the kind of man every Christian father wants his son to grow up to BE like, and wants his DAUGHTER to grow up to MARRY.
Be like THAT, Christian. And if you’re NOT yet, then find someone who IS, and let him disciple you. Like Paul, who invited others to “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor 11:1).
3) Be encouraging, be exemplary, and thirdly, we must be INVESTED. We’ve gotta be IN it for the LONG HAUL. Barnabas was invested enough to know when he needed BACK-UP. So in v25 went and got SAUL. And then “for a whole year, [v26] they met with the church and taught a great many people.” There are no silver bullets when it comes to discipleship. No shortcuts to success! No 3-month curriculums out there that you can simply walk through and guarantee you end up more like Jesus. The recipe for discipleship here is: Invest your LIFE into someone else (“they met with the church”)... and invest God’s WORD into them (“they taught a great many people”)... and then KEEP doing that over a LONG period of TIME (they did it “for a YEAR”).
And what’s the Result? V26: “in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians” - i.e., “little Christs”. It was a derogatory term, used by outsiders. These are the first followers of Jesus explicitly CHARGED with the crime of looking like Him, acting like him; being Jesus’ “MINI ME”s. If you were on trial for being a “Christian”, a mini-Christ, would there be enough evidence to convict you? May it still be true of US today, church!
#3 - So we need effective evangelism, dynamic discipleship, and thirdly, the church is called to the ministry of MERCY (11:27-30; 12:25). Mercy ministry.
Vv27-28: a prophet named Agabus, came down from Jerusalem to Antioch and accurately predicted “a great famine… in the days of [the emperor] Claudius”. This is well-documented historically: the flooding of the Nile River in the year AD45 led to a damaged crop in Egypt, the breadbasket of the region, and sent grain prices skyrocketing throughout the Roman world for years.” (Merida, 163) But in the MIDST of it, v29, “the disciples [in Antioch] determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea.” Three things to notice about that, and to seek to EMULATE ourselves:
Meaningful mercy ministry is SELFLESS. There’s about to be this great famine over “ALL the world”, including… ANTIOCH! And yet, we read “the disciples [in ANTIOCH] determined… to send relief to… Judea.”
Gas and grocery prices were outta control. And to be sure, it was hurting THEIR OWN week-to-week budgets. But they thought, “You know who it must be hurting even MORE? The widow down the street; I’m gonna buy her some groceries. The guy who cuts my lawn; I’m gonna pay him a little more with these gas prices.”
They were SELFLESS.
Our mercy ministry must be GENEROUS. V29 also says, “they determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief”. No one FORCED them to give; they gave willingly. Moreover, they didn’t ask, ‘How much is it gonna cost us?’ They simply gave as much as they possibly could (Merida, 164).
2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each one must give as he has decided in his own heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” And then v13 tells us the RESULT of that kind of giving: “[Others] will glorify God because of [your generosity] that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ”. Our generosity generates God-glorifying gratitude in OTHERS when they see our FAITH in action, the gospel in action: our hope in a Savior, Jesus, who so selflessly and generously gave up EVERYTHING for OUR sake. And…
Our mercy ministry should be FAMILIAL. “They determined… to send relief to the brothers in Judea.” Their financial support was driven at least in part by their conviction that these Judeans, who they had almost certainly NEVER met, were their FAMILY. Their brothers, sisters. If a total stranger knocked on my door this afternoon and said, “Hey, I really need $200, could help me out?”, that is a VASTLY different scenario than if my SISTER called and said, “I really need $200.” I heard James McDonald say once that there’s not a SINGLE example in the Bible of the church caring financially for an outsider. Today, we throw money at unbelievers, hoping that will bring them to Christ, but the consistent biblical model is that the church cares for one ANOTHER, within the church, and when the world sees how we care for each other - despite the distance (300 miles from Antioch to Jerusalem), despite our diversity (here’s a primarily Gentile church in Antioch taking care of a Jewish church in Jerusalem), despite not even KNOWING each other! - when the world sees THAT kind of selfless support they think, “Wow, there’s something different about THIS community! This CHRISTIAN community, the Church… I want IN!”
#4 - A missional church needs Like-minded, led-by-the-Spirit LEADERS (13:1-2)
ch12 ENDS with “Barnabas and Saul returning from Jerusalem [having] completed their service [of delivering the donation]”. And then ch13 opens on the “prophets and teachers… [the LEADERS] in the church at Antioch”. And we discover 3 attributes here of impactful leadership: leaders must…
Be DIVERSE. Merida (165) explains: “Barnabas was a Cyprian Jewish believer (4:36). Simeon was called Niger; his name means ‘black’ or ‘dark’. Most believe he was from Africa. Lucian came from ‘Cyrene’, that is, North Africa. Manaen, who was brought up in Herod’s court, related to the royal upper class; he was either a foster brother or relative of Herod Antipas [Yeah! The same one who killed John the Baptist!] And then there was Saul, who… brought an academic, professorial dynamic to the group.” This was a DIVERSE group of leaders!
Now I know what some of you are thinking: We’ve got some WORK to do at West Hills! Cuz all SEVEN of y’all are a bunch of old, upper-middle class WHITE guys! Well, #1- I’m not THAT old! They just let Greg and I on the elder council cuz we’re BALD; we look the part. But #2- on a more serious note, you’re right: we DO have some work to do here at West Hills. Point taken. We ought to be praying that God would grow us into a more diverse church, with more diverse leadership. But #3- I would ALSO remind you that racial and socio-economic diversity are just two of MANY different types of diversity. And when it comes to… our personalities, our leadership styles, our spiritual giftedness, even our testimonies, our life experiences - we’re actually a very diverse group of leaders at this church! And we benefit GREATLY from that!
And I’m excited to announce this morning that hopefully we’re gonna be getting even MORE diverse here soon. Because today I get to present to you our candidates for our next elders and deacons here at West Hills. There’s been SO much time and prayer and discussion and work put into identifying, recruiting, BEGGING (in some cases), and on-boarding these “good men - and women! - full of the Holy Spirit and of faith”. But I am SO pleased to announce them to you, in advance of our church VOTE at the Town Hall meeting on June 5th:
Our candidates for ELDER: Eli Sandhaus and Taylor Keen.
And our candidates for DEACONS:
Deacon of Finance: Mark Henderlong
Deacon of Men’s Ministry: John Dozier
Deacon of Women's Ministry: Jody Gross
Deacon of Senior's Ministry: Sallie Arvison
Deacon of Community Needs: Terry Weaver
And Deacons of Corporate Prayer: Bill & Ana Konyk
And replacing our outgoing Deacon of Hospitality, Emily Mitchell, who has graciously and faithfully completed HER 2-year term will be Brad & Paula Baum, as our new Heads of Hospitality.
But before we even VOTE on them on June 5th, would you join me in thanking these brothers and sisters for even being willing to step up and serve the church in all these different, diverse ways…
Our leaders must be LIKE-MINDED. That’s the picture we get of the Antiochian leaders here in v2; they were “worshiping the Lord” together with one HEART. Despite their diversity, they are unified in purpose and spirit.
It’s GOOD for leaders to be diverse when it comes to our personalities, and spiritual giftedness. But we can’t be TOO diverse when it comes to our THEOLOGY. Or our philosophy of MINISTRY: Who is Jesus? What is the Gospel? Why do we exist as a church, our MISSION? Where are we heading as a church, our VISION?” We must be LIKE-MINDED about such things.
Our leaders must be LED-BY-THE-SPIRIT. v2: “the Holy Spirit said [to them], “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul”. That’s the ONLY way to stay unified amidst such diversity. We must, collectively, as a church, and especially as leaders, be led by the Spirit.
Lastly, #5 - the missional church must be Selfless in its SENDING (13:2-3). Selfless sending. And being a selflessly sending church means 3 things:
We must be SUBMISSIVE. We must pray and LISTEN for the Lord’s direction; v2: “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said…”. And they LISTENED. They expected God to speak, and they knew enough ABOUT God to know that often when He does, He calls us to uncomfortable things. Will we submit to him; “not my will but YOURS be done, Lord”.
We must Be SACRIFICIAL. God said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul,” the 2 most important leaders in the church! I’m just imagining praying together with my fellow elders at next month’s meeting and the Holy Spirit saying, “Set apart for me Will and Thad and Brian for the work to which I have called them.” All 3 of our pastors on staff… God calling us to go plant a church elsewhere. Merida says: “The church sent their BEST on mission… The Antioch church stepped out in faith and made a sacrifice… That’s what missionary churches do. [They] reflect the missionary heart of the Father, who sent heaven’s best, Jesus Christ, for the good of the nations… The Father sent His Son that we may be saved, and now he sends us that others may be saved.” (166-7)
Lastly, we must ALL be SUPPORTIVE of missions. v3: “they laid their hands on them and sent them off” - Paul and Barnabas received the BLESSING of the Antiochian church. And while we don’t hear about it explicitly, you can rest assured they weren’t sent out empty-handed either. This was a missional PARTNERSHIP. Here’s what that means: we’re ALL missionaries. Because we are ALL called to take part in God’s Great Commission to “be His witnesses to the ends of the earth”, and play our part. For some of us, that will mean being selflessly SENT - some of you will be the ones physically TRAVELING to the ends of the earth. For others, it means selflessly STAYING - watching others get the joy of taking the gospel to new places and people, while you’re stuck here in gospel-saturated St. Louis, so that you can SUPPORT their ministry to the nations, through prayer and financial support. But both the SENT and the SUPPORTER are missionaries, both playing their part.
What part is God calling YOU to play this morning? Calling US to play, collectively, as a church? West Hills: may we be a missional church, like the church at Antioch.
May we be an effectively evangelizing, dynamically discipling, mercy ministering, led-by-the-Spirit, selflessly sending church who makes disciples of ALL the nations, ALL for the glory of God! Amen?