English
Quo Vadis? A Prequel
Acts 11:19-30
In last week's episode (from Acts 13:1-3), we saw a vibrant church in a dynamic world-class city sending its two leading members away to carry the message of Jesus to people who had never heard of him. Today, I want us to pull back a few years and see what led to that church being so alive and so willing to make huge sacrifices. In other words, this is a prequel-sermon! Like the popular prequels of Hollywood, i.e., Star Wars 1-3 coming after 4-6 or Godfather 2 being a prequel to Godfather 1, we're going to see what led to this church in Antioch being the kind that asked a profound question. It was the same question that was asked in a renowned encounter between Jesus and Peter, "Quo Vadis?" Where are you going? Where is God sending you in your life? The Antioch believers were convinced that every Christian is sent somewhere by God.
When a conservative Jewish Christian named Barnabas walked into a church in the city of Antioch to assess what was going on there, he saw a church that was not merely doing religious things but a group of energized Christians who were convinced that they were to play a role in their Heavenly Father's mission. And today, I want to ask what he saw there. I am praying people will see the same things in us here at LAC!
What did Barnabas see in Antioch? He saw a big city filled with people whom Jesus came to save.
Barnabas was a man who had lived much of his life in Jewish communities in which most people shared a similar heritage and culture. There were surely some differences among the people in his Jerusalem church. Still, they shared a basic understanding of life coming from their shared heritage going all the way back to their Patriarch Abraham. But, what was happening in Antioch was very different from life in Jerusalem.
When the church began to grow in Antioch, the Jerusalem leaders sent Barnabas to this megacity. He surely saw things like its diversity, shopping and excitement. Antioch's setting was beautiful being located on a wide river with high mountains surrounding it. Its nickname was Beautiful Antioch.
But, he saw the downsides of urbanization too. High crime rate. Incredible overcrowding: almost 200 people per square acre (cp., 100 in Manhattan and 13 in Los Angeles). And, they had no high-rises to help relieve the over-crowding -- and no sanitary toilets either. Think of the mess, the disease, the poverty and the homelessness in that city. And, Antioch was renowned for its immorality. Even the Romans considered Antioch to be "Sin City" with its enormous public theater featuring open public prostitution.
We live in an area not wholly unlike Antioch. We're in America's 2nd largest metropolitan area with the beauty and excitement and entertainment that a city like this brings with it. And, we have many of the same problems Antioch had – over-crowdedness among the poor, homelessness, crime... We even have a reputation in many circles for loose morals due to our entertainment industry. I often heard about the negatives associated with Hollywood as I grew up. In fact, I still get letters from parents whose children are moving out here and asking me if a Christian can really be a Christian in Southern California. (I do believe we can!) So, I want us to learn to see our city as Barnabas saw Antioch.
Many would have visited Antioch and seen a city that should be abandoned – a city to be judged. But, Barnabas saw it as a city in which the gospel of Jesus could make a difference. He did not leave or condemn Antioch. He stayed and served there. And, mostly, I want you to see that he saw God's people there, a church being God's salt and light to that city. He saw a church that not only reached its own city but sent people to reach others as well. See v. 23: Barnabas "saw what the grace of God had done and he was glad."
What did he see in the church in that city?
#1. He saw a church that reached out with the gospel to all people in its community.
Some spread the word only among the Jews. Others, however, ... went to Antioch and spoke to the non-Jews also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus (11:19-20).
It isn't surprising to me that the Jerusalem Christians who were fleeing their homes because of the anti-Christian persecution, spoke only to other Jewish people. That's the way most of us are. We feel more comfortable with people like ourselves. We sometimes even think that people different from us wouldn't want to hear from us. There are many, many things that make us tend to stay away from people different from ourselves.
But, the believers who went to Antioch somehow had learned that God's offers his grace to all people, that the forgiveness of Christ is sufficient for all sins, and that the power of the Holy Spirit is more than capable of transforming all lives. Do you believe that? Do you believe?
· That those trapped in drugs or prostitution or gangs can be set free?
· That long-standing broken relationships can be healed?
· That the immoral can become moral, the proud can become humble, and the anti-Christian become a joy-filled Jesus-follower? Do you believe it?
It's clear to me that the believers in Antioch had personally experienced the life-transforming power of God. So, they knew that the grace of God is sufficient for all people. Therefore, this church in Antioch was an outwardly focused, witnessing and welcoming church. And, God gave fruit to their witness. V. 21: The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
I am praying that this is the kind of church we will be here at LAC.
#2: He saw a church that needed to grow spiritually (discipleship).
Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and... brought him to Antioch. For a whole year Barnabas and Saul... taught great numbers of people (11:25-26).
I am quite sure that the new believers did not know much about the God who had made himself known in the Old Testament, the Jesus who had come as God in flesh into this world, and the necessity of a cross and resurrection for to bring about our redemption. In addition to that lack of basic knowledge about God and the Bible, I am just as sure that the people of Antioch had established patterns of life in that city in which addictions had to be broken and life habits had to be changed. Even in a city less known for sin than Antioch was, the city of Corinth, Paul had once written, Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were many of you. But you have been washed, you have been sanctified, you have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:9-11).
I hope you grasp what Paul is talking about in those verses. It's this: Jesus came because God loves us – and he does so in spite of the fact that all of us have engaged in all sorts of things that don't please God. But, when we place our faith in Jesus, God washes us clean and sets us on a new path. Therefore, we cannot live as we once lived once we have surrendered in faith to Jesus. Is that clear to you? But, why do we believe that? How do we know sin can be forgiven and life can be made new? How do we know how to live at all?
This is what we call discipleship. It's that process of going from what we once were before Jesus saved us to what God promises us we will someday be. And, do you see what is essential to God's transforming work in our lives? It's teaching. We must be taught the Word of God. Teaching God's Word is so important that Barnabas rushed to Tarsus to get Paul -- and the two of them taught great numbers of new believers.
So, let me tell you these two things:
#1) A good church doesn't just care about you and me getting saved. A good church wants each one to grow to become complete in Christ. When you come to Jesus, that's our commitment at LAC to you. We will do all we can to help you grow to become what God created you to be. We won't condemn you for your past but we won't leave you living as you did in the past either – because God won't leave you there.
#2) The foundation for your new life in Christ is learning the faith as revealed in the Bible. A good church will work hard to help you know "the faith". That's why we take so much of our gathered worship service to teach the Word. And, in the coming year here at LAC, you will hear about many opportunities for learning – or re-learning – the faith upon which your new life is to be built. Barnabas knew (and I know) that you cannot live differently unless you have learned how God has made you to live. And you cannot give witness to others when you have never grasped the message yourself. So, watch for learning opportunities here at LAC and, as you do, a) develop a regular plan for reading Scripture and b) seek out a smaller group in our church, one that is not only committed to fellowship but also to studying the Word.
#3: He saw a church unified by shared faith in Jesus Christ.
Disciples were first called Christians at Antioch (11:26).
In the first century, Rome had gained control of most of the known world. Because of that, in unprecedented ways, people could travel freely and across former national barriers throughout the Roman Empire. And what happened was that to engage in trade and to find employment, people flocked to the cities. So a city like Antioch was comprised of all the people groups of the world. Records show that in Antioch there were large Jewish, Chinese, Middle Eastern, African, and European communities. It was a lot like Southern California in that way.
But, even though there was enormous diversity within the city, the people groups were very segregated. There were 18 residential quadrants in the city, each of which was comprised of people from distinct nationalities and ethnicities. Even though lives touched occasionally at places like the marketplace or entertainment centers, the people groups maintained their distances from one another. These groups were identified and kept separate by things like language, national heritage, and skin color.
But, as we've seen, these Antioch Christians were calling people from all the people groups in the city to faith in Jesus. And, therefore, all these diverse people were becoming a part of their church family! As these diverse church people would gather to worship together and then go out into the world to serve together, the question arose about how they were to be identified. This new group had people of every national, ethnic, language and religious background. As we saw last week in Acts 13:1-3, even the church leadership came from three continents and four people groups. What would people call a group like that? In Antioch, they were called "Christians", i.e., people who followed Christ.
So, the only things that unified this group were that 1) they lived in the city and 2) they belonged to Jesus. I read this and I remember that Jesus said, "By this shall all know that you are my disciples, if you (who otherwise are very different) have love one for another."
I hope you see the implications of this for us. In our divided world, the church is to be a place in which people who are from different races, who once might have belonged to different gangs, and who might come from enormously different economic situations become brothers and sisters in Christ. And we need to demonstrate our unity in Christ by worshipping together in our services and then going out into our world and serving alongside one another. People should ask, "What holds those people together?" And, the only answer should be, "Jesus." They are "Christ-ians" – people who follow to Jesus.
In the North American church, I think we often are unknowingly doing something that doesn't glorify God. What I mean is that, too often, even though we might all gather on the same campus, we often are content to allow ourselves to live lives divided from one another. We do this sometimes thinking, "If we create a gathering focused on what this or that group likes, then our church will grow." The result is that churches sometimes create gatherings for the old and others for the young, some for the rich and others for the poor, and some for those who love teaching and others for those who love experience.
We're not going to do that at LAC. Let us learn from the church at Antioch. Don't just worship together with those in your high school, college or adult group. Make a commitment to come here and worship together. I know that all of us will have to be open to change when we welcome different people into our church gatherings. All of us will have to give up preferences out of our deep love for others in our church family who may be different from us. But God will be glorified when we worship and serve together – together! And, I am convinced of this: you will meet God when you make that commitment. With that in mind, let me show you again what the Holy Spirit showed your Ministry Council last October:
We are sent ones, intergenerationally:
Worshiping in unity
Learning in community
Progressing toward completion in Christ
Serving God's mission.
This vision is counter-cultural, I know. But it is very biblical.
#4: He saw a people committed to showing the love of Jesus to those in need.
The disciples, as each one was able, determined to provide help for the brothers living in Judea (11:29).
We only get a glimpse of the compassion that flowed from the Antioch church in vv. 27-30. When a prophet made it known that a widespread famine would prove to be devastating in Judea, these believers in Antioch gave to meet that need. History would go on to show that this characteristic of giving sacrificially to meet the needs not only of other Christians but of all whom God brought across their paths was a distinguishing mark of the church.
When the overcrowding led to disease in places like Antioch and in Rome, other groups threw their sick out into the streets to die. But, Christians went and gathered up the sick, prayed for them, and served them. As the Emperor Julian complained about to a priest from his religion about his frustration in dealing with the Christian growth in the mid 4th century (Ep. Sozum. 5:16): "Their success lies in their charity to strangers. These godless Galileans (by which he meant Christians) support both their own poor and ours as well!"
I want this to be said about us as well. And, I've seen this kind of heart for those who hurt or feel alienated growing among us as a church family. I love what I see God doing in our lives. But, I know the love of God must grow in us and flow more mightily through us too.
God has placed you and me here in this area for a reason – to be his witnesses, his ambassadors. And, God has placed us here in this city on the very public corner of the 210 and Lake Avenue for a reason too. We must bear witness to this city in which God has placed us. We must bear witness in Word and deed.
We have the privilege of being a church located on this street corner, in this urban area (with all its needs, problems, and opportunities), in a place with some of the finest schools in the world, and in a place that carries values to the entire world through its entertainment industry. We are "sent ones" into this community and from this community into the world. Quo Vadis? Where are you going?
To His glory,
Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor
Greg Waybright • Copyright 2013, Lake Avenue Church