Healthy Christians - Acts 11, 13 - Pastor Jason Fritz

[Music] hey good morning church great to be with you all you know what just how sweet is it to have our students with us to have them leading worship they're working back there hard too you're calling door thank you guys so we're super blessed super blessed to have you all participating special thanks to pastor hudson our youth pastor and all of the volunteers in fact uh hudson is going to be bringing the sermon next sunday he'll be in acts chapter 12. today we're in acts chapters 11 and 13. so just by way of reminder the overarching title or theme of our series as we work our way through the book of acts is this how to change the world and so we've been reminded that if we want to bring real permanent change into the world then we must bring the message of jesus obviously not only does that have benefits in this life here and now but it has eternal consequences as well so here's how things have started so far just a quick recap 2000 years ago christianity started with a group of jews living in jerusalem who believed that jesus is the messiah see they understood their old testament they read those passages that spoke of a forthcoming messiah they realized that jesus was the fulfillment of all those prophecies and more so sort of like the gas that lit this whole thing on fire was the fact that jesus made many post-resurrection appearances now that's significant we've said many times that there would be no christianity if there was no resurrection it's one thing to say hey jesus fulfilled these prophecies it's another thing to say we saw him after he was crucified and buried we ate with him we lived with him he taught us we received instruction and so because of this experience these early christians they had to tell others but it was really exclusively a jewish thing it was one jew telling another jew about who jesus is and then something tragic happens but god often takes tragedy and turns it into triumph this man named stephen he's an early believer he gets killed for his faith in christ they stone him to death as a result of this it's no longer acceptable to be a christian in jerusalem so the christians begin to spread out they begin to scatter they head south down into judea and they head north up into samaria and what ends up happening is that the words of jesus spoken in acts chapter 1 verse 8 they become fulfilled when he said to his early followers you're going to be my witnesses it's going to start in jerusalem and then it's going to go to judea and then samaria and then it's going to go to the uttermost parts of the earth and that's exactly what happens but the death of stephen was the catalyst to move them outside of jerusalem and so because they're they're so crazy about this resurrection phenomenon fulfilled in jesus they're telling everybody no matter where they go they're spreading the message so when they travel north to samaria we learn that they encounter samaritans half-blooded jews bible tells us they had no dealings with each other the jews saw the samaritans as unclean impure they kind of gave it back to the jews they did not get along but these jews as they were traveling through samaria they were telling them about jesus and lo and behold the samaritans respond in faith now you have samaritan believers and then in this other place we read about this ethiopian and this roman soldier they don't they're not within the jewish community at all but they're considered god fears these are gentiles respect admire even worship the god of the hebrews but they don't understand the hebrew old testament like the samaritans or the jews but they're drawn to the to their god they're called god fears they are given the message of jesus they respond in faith so now everybody's like wow okay god is doing something that we never expected what we thought was just for the jews is now being expanded into a much much bigger family then we come to chapter 11. and what we see in chapter 11 is kind of like taking taking the lid off of this whole thing because god does something that is so beyond what anybody could ever expect or anticipate in fact some of the early believers are having a hard time accepting the fact that god would actually be doing something like this certainly the gospel was for the jews okay maybe samaritans because they had a little bit of jewish blood in them for those who feared god they were gentiles they wanted to know more about the jewish god okay maybe god would meet them but now the gospel is going forth to a group they have no idea who the hebrew god is they have absolutely no understanding of the hebrew scriptures these would be in a modern day context like the most unchurched people you could think of they've never stepped foot in a church and god has something for them acts chapter 11 verse 19. now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over stephen they traveled as far as phoenicia cyprus and antioch so this tells us they're really beginning to spread because antioch is about 300 miles north of jerusalem they were speaking the word they were telling people about jesus but look at this to no one except jews so many of them were still thinking this is still primarily a jewish thing jesus is just for the jews he's the jewish messiah the hard root of christianity is is jewish it's just for the jews so many of them were telling talking about jesus but just to the jews that they encountered but there were some of them men of cyprus and cyrene who on coming to antioch they spoke to the hellenists also preaching the lord jesus so it's this group the hellness that don't fit into any of these boxes sure maybe a samaritan half-blooded jew maybe to those gentiles that wanted to know god they worshipped god but they didn't know about jesus and so god miraculously provided a missionary to explain jesus to them sure okay all that makes sense great god would reach those people but the hellenists so the hellenists were greeks who had no comprehension none whatsoever of any jewish context they were polytheistic the idea that there would be one god the greeks worshipped the many gods but one god no these guys were there completely in a different place and yet when the message of jesus gets to them lo and behold they start responding we know this from chapter 13 and verse 1. now there were in the church at antioch prophets and teachers now we're going to get a list of names now this list of names is extraordinarily important when you understand who these people are and what god is doing now in this thing called the church because maybe you've heard me say the last few weeks there has never been nor will actually there ever be anything like the church for this very reason alone god is doing something that is so counter-cultural and i know this is a big statement but i'm going to back it up the world had never seen anything like it okay here's a description of these leaders in the church at antioch prophets and teachers barnabas barnabas was a jew from cyprus simeon who is called niger niger is the latin word for black presumably he's from africa lucius of cyrene cyrene is in north africa but that part of north africa that was dominated by arabs then there's this guy named manan he's a lifelong friend of herod the tetrarch this is the same herod that had john the baptist beheaded he has a ton of influence and power he kind of fancied himself as sort of christianity's number one opponent and he was going to kill one of their greatest advocates right in john the baptist but yet he's got this guy that he grew up with and he has come to faith in jesus christ so this church will become one of the most influential churches in all of history and the reason why is because of the diversity of its people you have this multi-ethnic group you have people that have places of very high prominence and position right very close to the king you have those who are sort of the bottom of the social ladder you would have slaves who have now been a part of this christian movement all these people from these different backgrounds ethnicities raised they're all coming together now under this thing called the church up until this point every race had its own religion do you realize that is that interesting see if you were a greek and you worship the greek gods if you're a samaritan you worship the hebrew god but in your own way different than the jews if you're a jew you worship the hebrew god but according to the old testament scriptures every race had its own religion until jesus comes into the picture and jesus lowers all of these barriers that humanity has wanted to put up to keep them apart and so even from the outside outsiders are going how do we explain what's happening here how how do we explain this we don't even have a word to describe what's happening this is how revolutionary it is that's why in acts chapter 11 verse 26 it says it was an antioch but by the way antioch was one of the most diverse cities in the known world at this time it was a hub for training trading it attracted people from all over and it was an antioch that the disciples were first called christians isn't that interesting it's like they were saying we've never seen anything like this anywhere in the world how are we going to explain the unity in the midst of all this diversity well we got to really figure this out i guess the best way to describe it is to figure out what it is that unites them well what is it that unites them christ christ is the latin word for christos which means messiah see all these people with all these different backgrounds they're all united around the belief that jesus is who he said he was that he died on the cross to forgive them of their sins that he rose again the third day and by believing in him they'll have eternal life with him the word christian literally means little christ they were seen as little jesus followers that's the only way to describe it so wouldn't it make sense that this becomes the first church to see the importance of reaching out to the world it's the first church that engages in global missions if you will and it does make sense because everybody's you know gathered around this these are these are guys in leadership that we're reading about all this diversity coming together like all right well clearly god is including all people into his family so we need to take this beyond antioch and to the rest of the world and in order to do that we need to send forth watch this our best our best we're going to send forth the a-team to go out and to carry this message beyond our walls chapter 13 verse 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 then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off this would have been an incredible moment in church history because again for the congregation it's like okay what are we going to do we're sending off two of our all-stars these guys will go on to become the most successful church planters of all time and from one church planter to another you just have to bow down and give them all respect the apostle paul will go on to be one of the most influential men who has ever lived i'll prove it to you 2000 years later millions of people all over the world are reading the things that he has written okay the guy was very very successful so the church says we're going to take our best and we're going to send them out to reach the world they do so and you know what happens to the church in antioch without their two key guys that church thrives how is that possible well what we learn is that this church was committed to some fundamental things that make it healthy in chapter 11 verse 25 and 26 we read this so barnabas went to tarsus to look for saul by the way this is the same soul that had their masculine encounter and he was a jewish academic a jewish zealot sought to kill christians saw the resurrected jesus gets his life turned upside down when he found saul he brought him to antioch for a whole year they met with the church and they taught a great many people all right so if a church is going to have a profound spiritual impact in the world then that will be a church that is committed to teaching the scriptures so my commitment to you has been and will always be to rightly divide the scriptures to bring you every sunday every time we get together and i have the opportunity to exercise my gift in serving you my commitment is it's to just deliver this feast my job is to set the table for you so that you can just dine off of the banquet that is the richness and the nourishment that is god's word a church that wants to have a profound impact in the culture will be a church that is committed to understanding receiving teaching the word of god paul and barnabas they taught for a solid year and the congregation grew any time there is biblical teaching there will be fruit and you see some of this fruit in chapter 11 verse 27. now in these days prophets came down from jerusalem to antioch and one of them named agabus stood up and foretold by the spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world then you get this little parenthetical statement that this actually took place in the days of claudius so early historians actually record they write about this event it actually did happen in the first century ad there was a famine that took place in judea and it was under the reign of claudius and so this prophet comes down actually says hey it's going to get really hard for the believers in judea the church in judea and so the church in antioch hears this prophetic word and they say great we need to help them we need to prepare them for what's about to come because when there's a famine fruit is scarce the price of food goes high we need to take care of our brothers in the city of jude in the area of judea so the disciples determined everyone according to his ability that's a great principle for your own personal generosity by the way people ask themselves well how generous am i supposed to be well here's the first first question ask yourself well what has god entrusted to you you know it's kind of like the parable of the talents one has ten one has five one has one right now all you're responsible for is to be faithful with what you have been given so you ask yourself what is it that god has given me and in what proportion now what is my responsibility to give based on what god has entrusted to me so that's a great that's a great starting point so they send relief to the brothers living in judea and they did so sending it to the elders by the hand of barnabas and saul so once again healthy churches are characterized by this giving attitude and showing love to one another love to one another okay uh this is why it's so important for christians to gather together in face-to-face personal interaction a screen will never never be able to replace it fully even those cute little heart-shaped eye emojis they will never ever replace your god-given face never won't even come close see there was this guy one of these two guys barnabas his name literally means son of that's what bar means son of varnapa son of consolation or son of encouragement this guy lived up to his name there's a really interesting greek word that's used to describe his ministry it's the word para kaleo para kaleo it's actually a compound word in the greek language two words combined to make one but it's a fascinating word in fact bible translators have a hard time capturing the meaning of this word with just one english word that's why as you read the greek text you'll see this greek word translated a number of different ways in the english language and when you see that immediately you have to go huh there's something interesting about this greek word it doesn't quite it's not quite captured by just one english word so let me explain it to you the word pera means to come alongside but in the greek language it's a very soft word it's a very gentle word think of someone you love just kind of snuggling up next to you right maybe you're like watching a movie and you're sharing a bowl of popcorn or something like that you're just getting real cozy with each other that's pera to come alongside it's a very soft and gentle word then you have this word kaleo which as it sounds means to call actually to shout shout it's a harsh word it's hard it's it's kind of rough kind of in your face and so what the greeks did is they combine these two words a soft word and a hard word para to come alongside and to shout it's really interesting how what would be the english translation of that that's why it's so hard often times the word exhortation is used but i think there might be a better better word better english word maybe a better english word is to implore or maybe to besiege because if you're imploring someone you're saying i want to say something to you and and i'm i'm i really want to be intense about how i communicate this but i want it to come from my heart i want you to hear my heart you know if you beseech somebody what you're doing is you're saying i want to speak to you out of love but i want to make sure you get you get i want to make sure you're listening but i want you to see my heart in what i'm saying this is why elsewhere in the bible as if we need further convincing both jesus and the holy spirit are referred to using the word peracaleo so this is the ministry that barnabas has and so this ministry is as important in the church today as it has ever been um if we're going to be conformed to the image of jesus christ it can only happen when we are in close proximity to one another because it's think of it like this truth is verbal but love is non-verbal so when we're together i get to see the look in your eye i get to see your facial expression i get to feel your hand on my shoulder if we're not in close proximity with other believers we miss all of that hebrews 3 13 but exert one another every day guess what the greek word for exhort is there peracaleo as long as it is called today why so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin this is a great definition of sin sin is lie sin is deceit and what happens is when you fall into that deceitfulness something happens within you you become hardened to it and then it's like you find yourself giving into it over and over again and what you need is to be around brothers and sisters who will pull you aside and say can i speak a strong word into your life but from my heart because i care about you i want to exhort you there's the word i want to exhort you i want to bring to your remembrance what the scriptures say about what you're doing and it's all done out of love by the grace of god there go i so this was a very very important ministry in the early church and barnabas did it very very well now um why don't we see more of this in the church that's a pretty fair question to ask i think the answer is twofold number one we're all pretty insecure we're pretty insecure people and because we're insecure we're not quick to step into someone else's life and say something encouraging to them because we're so needy ourselves right i think that's one reason number two i don't think any of us is naturally good at this it's really really challenging to be transparent and yet not be self-absorbed there is no other way for us to get into this space with each other than by coming together and fulfilling what the scriptures actually call us to be as a church and i've said it before that greek word ecclesia literally means gathering you have got to come together and when you do you do it for the common good the other thing about this um this man barnabas same with paul over and over again you hear him being described as a man who is full of the holy spirit and of faith so we talked about this a couple weeks ago what does it mean to be filled with the holy spirit well we have a yardstick by which we can measure that so the question we ask ourselves is how much love is in my life how much joy am i experiencing am i being faithful what about the goodness that's within me kindness am i being gentle am i am i exhibiting self-control if you have that last quality you probably have have them all um in first corinthians chapter 12 we're told that the purpose of our spiritual gifts is so that we can serve one another and so if you want a simple definition of the church here it is it's a gathering of christians who have these this collection of spiritual gifts and when we're in close proximity to one another we use our spiritual gifts to be a blessing to each other and it is to that degree that this church or any other church is healthy so having said that let me say this our health is directly dependent upon you it's up to you it's up to you to play your part with what god has given you to come in and to be a blessing for the common good first corinthians 12 17 each is given the manifestation of the spirit not for your own good but for the common good that's a sign of a healthy church two other things are mentioned here they prayed and they fasted now in um in ephesians chapter six you have this amazing description of sort of this christian warrior right you might know it as the armor of god so he's got this helmet he's got this chest protection you know he's got the right shoes he's got the he's got the sword he's got all the stuff necessary to go into battle does he have everything he needs in that moment no there's something missing verse 18 says pray at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication so in other words in theory the prayerless christian can can be strong and can be totally armored up but never accomplish anything because he or she does not pray and the language here is super rich because it says make all kinds of prayers pray on your knees pray standing up pray silently pray out loud make your requests known pray for things that are specific pray for things that are in general pray with passion and all these different kinds of bible says pray without ceasing so you can be all armored up and ready but if you're not praying what will you accomplish we say around here a lot prayer can do anything god wants to do now let's talk about fasting somebody else should be talking to you about fasting not me let me just get that out there i love to pray fasting not so much it's kind of it's a hard one for me in part because like you i enjoy food but you know what fasting does it's um it reminds you that man doesn't live on bread alone and in those moments where you're like i could really man that ultimate cheeseburger from jack in the box is sounding really good right now you know it's when you make those personal sacrifices of watch this now basic and fundamental necessities in your life that you are drawn closer to the heart of god and you are reminded ok even though i am physically hungry what i need most is spiritual food they prayed they fast if you read through the bible both the old new testament you see that fasting was used before big decisions were made the church gets together they say leadership says well look around the room clearly god is doing something that is worldwide including all people into his family we in leadership we represent that and so now we need to take this beyond our walls to the world so what we're going to do is we're going to pray we're going to fast spirit of god speaks and spirit of god says send your best you'll be okay because you have the necessary ingredients to be healthy you've got the scriptures you've got men and women that are filled with the holy spirit they're exercising their gifts there's encouragement there's exhortation there's para caleo send your best and they do where do you start you start with people who are full of god's spirit don't ever think for a moment that your own personal walk with god is not important because any ministry that you have will be an outflowing of who you are the contents of your heart the desires of your soul and healthy churches they're filled with people like this and so what's really cool for us this morning is that we get a little barnabas style encouragement ourselves because we've got about 10 people that are going to in obedience express publicly their faith journey and their commitment to jesus christ and this is one of my most favorite things that we get to do as a church together because we are reminded that god is in the business of changing lives and these people serve as great examples i'm super thankful they serve as great examples of all that god is and all that god wants to do so father lord we just thank you for the reminders of this text lord for those who might be far from you for those who are hurting for those who just need encouragement god i pray that you would use your people to provide exactly what is needed father we ask that your hand of blessing a special blessing would be upon these people who are going to talk about your greatness and what you do certainly there are people in the room even people watching online they need to hear these words lord i pray that their their hearts would be open and receptive that god we just absolutely celebrate this time it's all because of you who you are and what you've done through it for us through your son jesus christ god be in our midst now in a powerful way through your spirit we pray god's people said amen

Channel: Illuminate Community

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Keywords: illuminate community church, pastor jason fritz, scottsdale arizona, church in scottsdale arizona, church in phoenix arizona, north scottsdale church, acts, the book of acts, acts 11, acts 13

Id: PNAesg3Xz58

Length: 30min 35sec (1835 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 28 2021