Gtcotr/ss081025
For those who like numbers and enjoy a little historical perspective, allow me to set the stage for the message this morning with a brief look at a general timeline and overview leading up to Acts 11. If you’re more interested in the scriptures and the heart of the message, I don’t want to bore you or lose you so let me encourage you to take your phone out for about 5 or 6 minutes and text someone you think might need to hear a good sermon this morning and ask them to check out Gtcotr on YouTube or Facebook. By the time they find it, we will be in Acts 11.
Spring of AD30 Jesus Crucified
Late May of AD30 Church was birthed in Jerusalem
Between AD32 & AD33 Stephen stoned
AD33 – AD34 Saul of Tarsus conversion to Christ
AD34 through AD46 Paul ministers/grows in many places
AD46 Barnabas brings Paul to Antioch
As a matter of perspective, as best many scholars can figure, Jesus was crucified in the spring of the year AD30. The Apostle Paul was born in about AD5, as we know it. This makes Jesus about 8 or 9 years older than the Apostle Paul.
The Holy Spirit was sent by God to empower Believers on the day of Pentecost which was late in May of AD30 birthing the first Church in Jerusalem.
The timeline offered by Luke as he wrote the book of Acts is not clearly spelled out however he gives us sequence so we can extrapolate from other writings and events recorded in the Bible and in historical documents. From these we expect Stephen, a deacon in the Jerusalem Church, was martyred in about AD32. Shortly after this, the young 28 – 29 year old Saul of Tarsus had his Damascus Road experience with the risen Jesus, and was saved to become the Apostle Paul, sent with a message of salvation to the Gentile nations.
For many years, AD33/34 – AD46, Paul ministers and grows in grace while living in Damascus, Jordan, the Arabian Desert, briefly in Jerusalem, and then back in his hometown of Tarsus which is in modern day Turkey. In about AD46, Barnabas went to Tarsus to bring Paul back to the Church in Antioch where a great revival was taking place. Let’s pick up there in the Book of Acts, chapter 11.
Acts 11 NLT
19 ¶ Meanwhile, the believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen’s death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. They preached the word of God, but only to Jews.
20 However, some of the believers who went to Antioch from Cyprus and Cyrene began preaching to the Gentiles about the Lord Jesus.
21 The power of the Lord was with them, and a large number of these Gentiles believed and turned to the Lord.
22 When the church at Jerusalem heard what had happened, they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
23 When he arrived and saw this evidence of God’s blessing, he was filled with joy, and he encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord.
24 Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. And many people were brought to the Lord.
25 Then Barnabas went on to Tarsus to look for Saul.
26 When he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. Both of them stayed there with the church for a full year, teaching large crowds of people. (It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.)
16 to 17 years after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, and God sending of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, Believers in Jesus as Son of God, Messiah of the Jews, and Savior of the World, are finally called Christians. It was at Antioch that Believers were first called Christians.
What did it mean to be a Christian in that day, in that part of the world?
- 1. Acts 11:19 tells us that Believers preached the word of God.
- a. But only to Jews …
- b. The world had already crept into the Church with an exclusionary doctrine, intending to limit salvation to “people like us.”
Wherever you draw a line with God is where He will raise up someone else to take your place.
- c. Acts 13:2 God sent Barnabas and Paul to go and do what the Holy Spirit told them to do … and that meant preach the word to anyone and everyone who would listen.
- 2. Acts 19:21 says the power of the Lord was with them.
- a. Christians must rely on the power of the Lord to be present with them.
- b. True Christianity, being like Christ, is powerful.
- i. Power to save, heal, forgive, intervene, deliver, encourage, restore, and renew.
- ii. Power to melt hearts of stone and change minds from carnal to spiritual appetites.
- iii. Power to strengthen in times of weariness and give hope to the hopeless.
- 3. Acts 19:23 Barnabas “encouraged Believers to stay true to the Lord.”
- a. Just 17 years after the crucifixion, when Church was a brand-new experience and salvation had first come to the Gentiles in Antioch, they needed to know that true Christianity demands we stay true to the Lord.
- b. The world was already threatening the doctrines of Christ and the teachings of the Church.
- i. Idolatry
- ii. Immorality
- iii. Superiority
We must guard ourselves to uphold Biblical truth in this broken world. The prince of this world hungers to confuse you, give you excuses, justify your sin, and gather your support for worldly ideologies. If it was wrong in the days of Jesus and the first Church, it is still wrong today.
The most powerful attribute of Christianity is its ability to separate the sin from the sinner. The law could not do that, but Jesus can, and Christians should. We have been given a Great Commission, (Matthew 28:18-20), to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. We cannot do this without:
- · Preaching the Word – Preach the Word of Jesus
- · Power from on high – Depend on the Power of the Holy Spirit
- · Staying true to the Lord – Serve no other gods
