Acts chapter 11, starting in verse 19. 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. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 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. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. and a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a while, or sorry, for a whole year, they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians. 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. This took place in the days of Claudius. So the disciples determined everyone according to his ability to send relief to the brothers living in Judea, and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. Let's pray together. God, your word is living and active. It is sharp and useful. It searches out the depths of our hearts and instructs our minds and our hands. And so we ask God that today you would speak to us in your word. In Jesus' name, amen. You're going to meet people at some point in your life who ask you, how can you be sure that this whole Christianity business is true? And there are actually lots of good answers for that, not the least of which is history. I don't know about you, I'm a naturally skeptical person. So if you tell me something's true, and then you give me the reason, you just have to trust me, I guarantee I will not believe you. That just doesn't work for me, I've got to verify. And I'm telling you this because Christianity is historically verifiable. I think that's the driving purpose of the Book of Acts. Luke, who writes it, along with his gospel, the reason he does this is to gather evidence, interview eyewitnesses, corroborate stories, and then compose a reliable historical account. And Luke's work has held up extremely well to the scrutiny of non-Christian historians. But Luke didn't write for them. Luke wrote for us. God did not inspire scripture for people who do not believe it. Rather, the purpose of Acts for us is to give us confidence in the historical events that are the foundation of our faith. So we might read something like Acts 11, 19 through 30 and see these people and places and events. And I guess sometimes we kind of breeze over them. It's really not like this passage is not super interesting. I mean maybe it is, I think it is, but it's just a face value. But actually Luke is looking back into Christian history and selecting events that are critical to the bigger story. So one of my seminary professors gave a really good illustration for this and so I'll borrow that. It's like what he's doing here. It's like looking back through a football game. It's football playoff season. Maybe you've watched some football. Looking back through the whole game and remembering a certain play or a certain call and saying that's where the game was really won. If you're a sports fan you understand exactly what that's like. You look at that one turning point in the game. And that's sort of what Luke is doing. He's grabbing these significant moments, whether we would think they're significant or not, and saying that's where the whole story really started to take shape. And so what we have here is one of these scenes and so we should be wise to slow down in this passage and think about the history of it and consider how that shapes our experience of Christianity. So the big picture is that God is accomplishing his worldwide mission in places through people who are becoming Christians. Let's start looking at some places. The most dominant place in the Bible and in the Old and New Testament is Jerusalem. we won't really get much about Jerusalem in this passage, but it is the capital city of Israel. It's where the king of Israel was to reside. It's most importantly, the site of the temple. Jerusalem is where God met with his people. And in the life of Jesus, Jerusalem is where Jesus was crucified for the forgiveness of our sins. It's where he was buried and rose from the dead in victory. Jerusalem is where Jesus appears to the disciples, ascends into heaven, and is enthroned as the eternal Lord and Messiah. And then, of course, as we've been reading in the book of Acts, Jerusalem is where the Christian disciples first tell about the good news of Jesus. Many people believe, and it is the first place where Christians are opposed. So Jerusalem is the epicenter of the Bible and of Christianity. So you should be able to find it on a map, okay, because it's a real place. Now, if you have a print Bible that isn't one of the pew Bibles, I don't think the pew Bibles have this, you probably have maps in the back of your Bible. Don't neglect those maps, become familiar with them. I'm gonna have Jerry Lim put a map on the screen here. and so I can help orient you if the sun behaves itself with those windows that we can't cover. Okay, so this is a world map, and I don't have a fancy laser pointer, but I have a finger. You live way over here in Washington State in the United States of America. We've got to travel all the way across the globe to this messy area over here. We'll call that the Mediterranean Sea, kind of north of Africa. So now Jerry Lane can go to that next one, I'll show you. So hopefully you have a map in your Bible that's something like this. It's like, in my Bible, it's called, I think, the Roman Empire and early Christianity. Something like that, or maybe one of the missionary journeys of Paul. I'll just keep this up here for a minute and help you or yourself. Okay, Mediterranean Sea. Jerusalem is just off the southeastern side of the Mediterranean Sea. So, be in the habit of knowing where that's at. And you'll see why this works out in a minute. Of course, they don't stay in Jerusalem long. Just leave this up here, Jerry Lynn, thank you. Look at Acts 11, verse 19. Again, just read it. It says, now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch. So here we're gonna have a scattering of Christians out of Jerusalem. Remember, Stephen in Acts 7 is executed as a witness for Jesus, and then the Christians flee. So on our map, you're in Jerusalem. Travel west until you hit the sea. And we start traveling north. Now we run into Joppa. Remember that's where Peter was in Acts chapter 10. Caesarea, that's where Philip was in Acts chapter 8. And we end up in Caesarea as well in our text today. And then we come to these cities up here, Tyre and Sidon. Ancient cities in the region of Phoenicia. So we read Phoenicia there in Acts chapter 11 verse 19. Tyre and Sidon is probably where they're at. Now from here, you can catch a ship and sail to If you don't get on that ship and go to Cyprus, which Cyprus is like a major port island for the Roman Empire, lots of trade happening there, so we're going to run into Cyprus a lot in the Book of Acts. If you didn't go to Cyprus, you would keep traveling north all the way up here into modern-day Turkey to the city of Antioch. That's where we will spend most of our time in Antioch. Hopefully you've got a good picture of that. Hopefully you've followed that along in your Bible. Both in Antioch and in Cyprus there was a large Jewish population. Now Antioch was likely the third largest city in the Roman Empire. Third largest city in the Roman Empire. Behind Rome, of course, is way over here in Italy. And Alexandria, which is down here in Egypt. So modern-day Egypt. Antioch's a big city. One commentary I read said that some people estimate at this time there were roughly 600,000 people in Antioch, which is a ton for an ancient city. So big metropolitan area, lots of people coming and going. One of the evidences of this metropolitan nature of Antioch, you actually see it here in Acts 11.20. where it says there were some of them men of Cyprus and Cyrene who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also preaching the Lord. So here you got Antioch. You have people who've come from Cyprus from this island. That's not too unexpected. But where's Cyrene? Way over here in Northern Africa. All opposite end of the Mediterranean Sea. So we've got People really traveling from all of the Roman Empire to Antioch. It's this big gathering place where people are coming and it's here that these people from Cyprus and from Cyrene start preaching about Jesus. Now, as far as the Book of Acts is concerned, the spread of the gospel around the world is not centered in Jerusalem. It's centered in Antioch. This is the place from which Barnabas and Saul are going to travel the entire Roman Empire and bring the gospel to many tribes and cities. We can probably take the map down now. Thank you, Jerry, for putting that up. Hopefully you found that in your Bible as well. You know, it's okay that the center of Christianity wasn't in Jerusalem. And honestly, the center of Christianity doesn't stay in Antioch forever either. In time, Christianity is moving from place to place, and that's because Christianity is not centered on a place, but on a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. But places do really matter. Jerusalem and Antioch matter, and this place matters. 300 South Quincy Street in Kennewick, Washington. If you don't know that, that's the address of this building. That's where the people of Crossroads Bible Church gather each Lord's Day for worship and fellowship. And this place is not the center of global Christianity. But it is the center of Christianity for you. This is where God has brought you and God is forming you and from here God is sending you. Which gives us all a specific responsibility in this place. Both in our words and in our deeds. One Christian author says that local churches are outposts of the kingdom of God. Little bases of operation. And our mission here is to know Jesus and to make Him known. So we should think carefully about this place and why we're here, not the building as much as the community. And I'll just challenge you with this for today, is just to start making this a regular prayer. God, how do we make Jesus known in this neighborhood? I know most of you don't live in or near this neighborhood, but this is our place. This is our little Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Antioch, whatever city you want to call it. This is where God has brought us. How can we make Jesus known in this neighborhood? Let's ask God to give us guidance. And when we think about making Jesus known in a place, as people did in Antioch, we should also realize it takes a lot of time. So what's summed up here in 12 verses didn't happen in 12 minutes. Matter of fact, we see that Paul and Barnabas preached there for over a year. So everything happening in Acts chapter 11 probably took well over a year. And so if we're going to reach this neighborhood with the good news about Jesus, it's going to take time. So I hope that we would pray and work to take steps in that direction. God is accomplishing his worldwide mission in places like this one and through people. Now, people are really important in the Book of Acts, major characters. Let's talk about some of them. One of them is Peter. Peter's not even mentioned in this passage, but Peter's so significant in the Book of Acts, so he's worth considering. He was the captain of Jesus' band of disciples. And up to this point in the Book of Acts, Peter is the main preacher of Christianity, but it's shifting to Saul, who, of course, we know will later be called Paul. So my help, just to flip through some pages of the Book of Acts, go back to chapter eight, We have Philip, right, but it's Peter who comes alongside Philip even. So we've got Peter's preaching all the way up through chapter 8. Then in chapter 9, we see the conversion of Saul. And then at the end of chapter nine and through chapter 10, it's Peter preaching to Cornelius. And then we get to where we're at in chapter 11, the end of chapter 11. And then once again, we're kind of focused back on Saul. And then in chapter 12, it'll be back to Peter. And then from chapter 13 on, it's all Saul. Now, there's a transition going here, right? We're kind of, Luke is showing us how one era of the Christian witness is wrapping up in Peter and how another era is beginning with Saul. And there's this overlap. Notice also the people that are mentioned in this narrative in Acts 11, 19-30. So pick it up in verse 19. 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. Now that's a really important detail because remember what chapter 10 and 11 were about? It was about Peter taking the gospel to someone who wasn't a Jew and to Cornelius, a Gentile. And the Christians came to this great realization, the gospel is going forth to Gentiles as well. Here's the thing, though, about that realization, it's a slow transition to that playing out in reality. Most of the Jewish Christians are still very uncomfortable going to the non-Jewish people and preaching the gospel, except in Antioch. Verse 20, but there were some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. Now, Hellenist simply refers to Greek-speaking people. So Jewish men from Cyprus and Cyrene, think of your map, they certainly spoke Greek. They were part of the Roman Empire, speaking Greek. And so they get to Antioch, and they start finding Greek-speaking, non-Jewish people, and start telling them the good news about Jesus in Greek, and those people believe. So verse 21, and the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. We'll talk in a little while about why they sent Barnabas, but Barnabas is a perfect candidate for this job. You remember way back in Acts chapter 4, at the end of Acts chapter 4, we meet Barnabas, he's called Joseph at that time, and we learn he's a native of Cyprus, that nice little island out there, which means Barnabas definitely spoke Greek. And Barnabas is a respected associate of the apostles, and so who better to bring knowledge and wisdom to this young, growing congregation of Greek-speaking Christians than Barnabas? So they send Barnabas. Verse 23, when he came, he saw the grace of God, and he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord. There's a little detail that Luke makes a point about. It's that this church is abounding. Notice in verse 21, a great number who believed turned to the Lord. And in verse 24, a great many people were added to the Lord. Now you've got Barnabas, skilled, he's godly, he's good. And I'm guessing that Barnabas still needed help. I'm not even just guessing, it's an educated guess. He needed help. He's got this big, growing congregation, so what does he do? Verse 25, Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him back to Antioch, and for a whole year, they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians. Why do you think he went to get Saul? I think, maybe practically, it's just that Tarsus was really close by. I don't have my map up there anymore, but it's just across the bay. Antioch to Tarsus, right there. So, and Paul had a reputation of being an excellent teacher. And it would, if Paul being from Tarsus, which is a city in modern Turkey, certainly spoke Greek as well, it would just make perfect sense for Barnabas to say, I'm going to go get that guy who's a strong preacher of Jesus, able to prove from the scriptures that Jesus is the Christ, and we are going to bring him here for help to teach. And that's what they do. They spend a year teaching together. And with that, we meet the dynamic duo of the rest of the Book of Acts. Barnabas and Saul. Saul gets all of the attention, which is fine. That's how God has arranged it. But it's really Barnabas and Saul that are going to take the gospel into the rest of the Roman Empire. Good men, strong men, preaching men that God has equipped for this task. Now there's a few more people we need to meet in this passage. First is Agabus. We're at verse 27 now. Now in those 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. This took place in the days of Claudius. So think of Agabus like an Old Testament prophet. I've talked about prophets and prophecy in other sermons, and we'll probably tackle it again when we meet Agabus again. But right here, Agabus is like an Old Testament prophet. warning of a coming famine, which is God's judgment. You know what other prophets do that? Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos. This is an Old Testament prophet. Agabus is saying famine is coming to the world. And it comes true. It does come true. Claudius was the Caesar before Nero. So Claudius ruled from 41 to 54 AD. And historically, we know that during the reign of Claudius, there were a number of terrible famines that struck the empire during his rule. So for them to talk about a famine on the whole world doesn't mean that there wasn't any rain anywhere, but it was basically within the scope of what we can see and experience, major famine across the Roman Empire. And that certainly happened during the reign of Claudius. And that famine, like, I mean, it's such a small detail, right? You might breeze over it. That stands behind a number of Paul's letters where he actually is going to churches and writing to churches, telling them to collect money to send back to Jerusalem for famine relief. Think of the book of First Corinthians is a great example of that. And so this famine is an important detail. As a matter of fact, here in Antioch, they collect money and they send it to Jerusalem. So Acts chapter 11, verse 29. So the disciples determined everyone according to his ability to send relief to the brothers living in Judea, and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. And there's two groups you need to pay attention to here, people, the disciples and the elders, because that's the ordinary shape that Christianity takes in the New Testament and beyond, is that God works through teachers and elders, like Saul and Barnabas and the apostles, and through the whole church, everyone else, the disciples. So we all do the work of ministry. Like within the work of ministry that God has given us, we do set aside teachers to equip disciples. And that's what we're still up to today. But the local church is a body. It's a group of Christians knowing Jesus and making him known. So we all do the work of ministry. It was the disciples that decided to do the famine relief. So we see God accomplishing his worldwide mission in places through people who are becoming Christians. And I use that word becoming Significantly. I don't mean like conversion. So we think of people becoming Christians, like someone who was not a Christian is now a Christian. And that's how we could use the word become. That does happen here in Acts chapter 11, but that's not how I'm using the word. I'm using the word more like Christians learning to be Christians. I think of it like this. You and I, because we're Christians, we are growing up into who we are. So this is a process by which God changes us and conforms us and grows us. Sometimes we call that sanctification, it's a big fancy word for it, but really this is the reality. All of us are, as Christians, are growing, we're learning, we're becoming who God intends us to be. And I'm thinking about that particularly because of verse 26. And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians. That's just a detail. It's so common to us. We use the word Christian all the time. The New Testament just doesn't. We think about Christians as just common language, but Luke's saying it's significant that in Antioch, they were first called the Christians. Likely what's meant here is that people outside of the Jesus preaching community looked at this group of people and said, we've got to put a name on this thing. Something's happening in our midst that we need to be able to talk about in some sort of language. They're not Jews because they're not all Jewish. But they're very religious and they've got a network of people and they're gathering regularly. And the outsiders recognize this group is all centered on this Jesus who they say is the Christ. So let's call them Christians. That's what's going on. Now, I wanted to think of a modern equivalent to help you understand maybe the situation. And I did my best. I'm asking for grace because this is just the best I could come up with. So don't hold this against me. The best modern equivalent for this are Swifties. If you don't know what a Swiftie is, it's a fan of Taylor Swift. If you don't know who Taylor Swift is, I can't help you. Maybe if you're from a different era, you could think of Deadheads. That would probably be a similar equivalent. Okay, now Swifties are not just fans of Taylor Swift music. They are religious. I just read the Wikipedia page, you could do the same. Okay, they have, they fill massive venues, they dress alike, they belong to all these little networks, they have leaders, they have enemies, and at the center of it all is the musician, which of course they say is the best musician ever to live. We're not here to debate that, but Taylor Swift, right? So what we do, what the media does, what culture does, is we look at this movement and we say, we need to call it something. What are we going to call them? Swifties. Okay, that's what's happening in Antioch, except for it's way better in Antioch, okay? Here's this group of people, they are devoted to each other, they're religious, they're meeting regularly, what are we gonna call them? Well, they're all about this Jesus who they say is the Christ, let's call them Christians. And of course, it's way better because what happened in Antioch was the work of God. So verse 21 reminds us that the hand of the Lord is with them. And when Barnabas came, he saw the grace of God among them. So what we see in Antioch are the defining marks of a Christian where God is at work. Which means we should look to this church in Antioch and say, that's what a Christian looks like, that's what I want to look like. So I think it's worth our while then to go back through Acts chapter 11 and try to identify what was it about these Christians that made people on the outside look at them and give them a name? What are the defining marks of a Christian? Now, I've got a list, I've got six, and I'll tell you this, there are some items in this list where maybe you will look at your own life and say, you know what, yeah, I'm already excelling in that. And there will be other areas where you'll say, man, I really need to grow in that, and that's good, right? Surely we aren't given examples so that we can just feel bad about ourselves. Sometimes you get a list like this and you sit there and go, well, I don't measure up to any of that, and so I'm just gonna give up. No, that's not why we have examples. We have examples to inspire us, to give us something to aim at, a direction to go. And that's where I want you to take this list. So looking back through Acts 11, try to identify what are the marks of a Christian that would cause outsiders to look at a community and give them a name. So what are the marks of a Christian? I've got six. Number one, Christians proclaim Jesus Christ. It might be obvious, but it's important. This is where everything begins. The Christians came to Antioch speaking, preaching, declaring Jesus. They called them Christians because that's the word they kept hearing, Christ. And so it is today. This is what Christians do. We tell people about Jesus, whether in pulpits, or in street corners, or at dinner tables, or break rooms, we open our mouths so that people can hear the good news about Jesus Christ, who came to earth to die for sins, to rise from the dead, and give forgiveness in life to everyone who believes in him. We proclaim Jesus. Now that is both strategic evangelism, and ordinary conversation. So strategic evangelism is like where we think and plan and act to tell people the gospel of Jesus. If you want to tell people about Jesus, you're gonna have to put some effort into that. And it's a good thing to put effort into. We think and we plan to tell people about Jesus. That could be inviting people to church gatherings, handing out tracks, which we have a whole bunch of in our entryway, you can just take a pile and hand them out. Knocking on doors, holding events, teaching classes, reading the Bible with your coworkers, inviting neighbors to your home to talk about Jesus, and on and on the list could go. But because we are people who proclaim Jesus, we gotta think about it and plan it and put that into action. That's what I call strategic evangelism. But it's also just ordinary conversation. that the name of Jesus would be regularly on our lips, giving thanks to him, telling of his blessings, like remembering how his teaching and his stories intersect into every facet of life. Christians are people who talk about Jesus. Number two, second mark, Christians, is that Christians are interdependent. Now this is where I'm gonna tell you why. the Jerusalem Church sent Barnabas. Here's my thinking. They send Barnabas to confirm that the message that's going forth in Antioch lines up with the message from Jerusalem. This isn't because they don't trust, this is just what happened. We saw it with Philip in Samaria, right? The apostles came to see what was going on in Samaria and to help confirm that what Philip was teaching was true. And so now they send Barnabas to Antioch to help and to encourage, and I think that it's because the people in Antioch asked for help. Like, I love that language, like, that what happened in Antioch came to the ears of those in Jerusalem. Like, it wasn't that they had social media or anything, and it wasn't that a bull birdie came. I bet somebody from Antioch traveled to Jerusalem and told the apostles, you'll never believe what's happening in Antioch. Like, the gospel is just exploding, people are coming to Christ, and honestly, we need some help. And they say, we've got Barnabas. He speaks Greek. He's from Cyprus. Let's send him up to Antioch. And then, of course, Barnabas asks for help in verse 25, going to find Paul. And I would think that the prophets coming in verse 27 from Jerusalem are probably more help to Antioch. And then, of course, those in Antioch send material help back to Jerusalem. It's as if, hey, you helped us out spiritually. And now knowing that a famine is coming, we're going to help you out materially. When I look at this picture, what do you see? No competition amongst churches. No isolation of one group of Christians against another. You see churches helping churches. So Crossroads, we cannot be faithful Christians alone. We need other churches to help us, and we need to help them. I think this is one of the best biblical reasons to belong to a denomination, as we do, the Evangelical Free Church of America. Part of my attitude is, if we can't get along with any other Christians, something's wrong with us, right? So we find a group of Christians that are like-minded with us. We may not agree about everything, but we can fellowship with them, right? And even locally, our church has a relationship with a few other local churches. It's just informal. But yeah, we have groups of pastors that meet together. And I trade pulpits with other pastors here in town so that you can hear them preach. And I go and preach to those churches. And we even do Good Friday with a couple other churches. Like all of this is just with this, to send this message to us and remind us, hey, we're dependent on each other. We can help each other. We're here for each other. So my encouragement to you in this regard is take some time getting to know who we are dependent on, who we can help. Now, we can't necessarily, the world is too big for us to have a relationship with every church. but know who we have a relationship with. Maybe start with the EFCA. You could sign up online on their website for their bi-weekly newsletter, learn a little bit more about this group that we've fellowshiped with. You could come to the district conference, so you can meet people and other churches. And we have guest pastors that'll come and preach from these other churches, get to know them and get to know about their churches, so that we can be interdependent. This is what Christians do. So to the second mark of Christians is that we're interdependent. Third mark in Acts chapter 11 is that Christians are a people of grace. Look again at verse 23. When Barnabas came and saw the grace of God, he was glad. What did Barnabas see? What did he see when he got to Antioch that made him glad? Well, he saw the grace of God. He said, well, what was that? How do you see the grace of God? Well, he certainly saw people who upon believing in Jesus were changed, their sins were forgiven, they were repenting, they were starting to conform their lives to Jesus. He also saw a growing church with love for one another. One of the contrasts, right, that we get here in this part of the book of Acts is the tension between Jews and Gentiles. And I'm guessing Barnabas, what he was seeing was in Antioch, the Jews and the Gentiles coming together as one church. And so we should strive to be the same. Jesus does change us. The grace of God will be evident in our lives by the way He guides us to repent of sin and to learn holiness. You should be able to, as a Christian. You should be able to look back on your life, a year, two years, five years, ten years, whatever it may be, and see God changing you. That's evidence of His grace and it should make you glad. Sure, none of us are finished yet, right? We're not a finished product. But you can see that what you love has changed, what you desire has changed, what you enjoy has changed, how you act has changed, how you talk, and on and on we could go. Christians are changed by God's grace and grace defines the community of Christians, as Barnabas saw. Right? What we should be becoming as a church are people who are quick to forgive, slow to anger, quick to listen, slow to speak, Quick to love, slow to understand. And in the midst of God transforming us, we give him all the credit, right? That's what we mean by his grace. Now, I understand that people who aren't Christians may look at a list like this and feel very frustrated because they've had experiences with Christians that don't quite line up. And I think what you can do to challenge your friends and family who aren't Christians who say, you know, Christians are hypocrites, They're just a bunch of immoral people. You could say, listen, there's probably some bad actors in Christianity, for sure. There's bad actors, and I don't wanna defend those people at all. But I will defend Christians who are a work in progress. Challenge people. Do you know someone who's a Christian who's been changed by God? Slowly, patiently, not perfectly? That's what we mean by grace. It's not that God makes us instantly perfect. but that God is transforming us. Christians are people who are changed by grace. A fourth mark, fourth defining mark of Christians in Acts chapter 11, is that Christians have devoted hearts. Read again verse 23, when Barnabas came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. Now, I'm reading the ESV, I preach at the ESV, I love the ESV, It's worth looking at some other translations, right? And seeing the way they translate this, because I think it more fully captures the idea here. So I'll read to you from the New International Version, the NIV. It says, Barnabas was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. And then also listen to the Christian Standard Bible, the CSB. It's a newer translation, it's a really good translation. CSB says, he was glad and encouraged all of them to remain true to the Lord with devoted hearts. Now, I read that because I think that word heart is really important. I'm sure the ESV translators had a good reason for not including it, but they didn't. Now, Christians are religious people. Devotion, absolutely. There's no doubt that Christians are religious. We have habits, we have traditions, we have teachers, that's all very good. But Christianity is to be more than religion. We're to be more than just merely devoted to our religion. Our devotion to God is to be earthy and genuine and emotional. That's what it means by the heart. So a defining mark of Christians is not just that we have habits, It's that we have heart. So here's a good question to ponder. Do my emotions reflect the truth that I believe? Do my emotions reflect the truth that I believe? Would somebody say of me that my faith in Jesus comes to define everything I feel and everything I am? I think that we ought to strive to be people whose faith in Jesus shapes our emotions. And one of the ways we learn this is through singing songs. So just think about the songs we've sang today, just this really quick summary here, and think about all of the emotions that accord with the truth which we were celebrating. We got lead on, O King Eternal, emotions of triumph, confidence, and jubilant trust in King Jesus. We sang, O fount of love, way to express emotions of bliss, joy, praise, gratitude, and hope. Jesus has forgiven my sins and promises me eternal life. We sang, my worth is not in what I own. Stirring emotions of humility, sacrifice, tranquility, rejoicing, and satisfaction, like everything I need, I have in Jesus. And then we sang, I ask the Lord that I might grow. Captures a lot of emotions, it's seven verses long. Desperation, zeal, passion, suffering, discipline, all reaching for eternal joy that transcends every earthly struggle. And then after the sermon, we're gonna sing, dear refuge of my weary soul, which I think might be a newer one for us. Emotions of sorrow, despair, grief, doubts, complaint, mourning, and yet all met with the mercy of God, God's comfort, God's hope that we might have rest and peace in Jesus. Just thinking about all those songs, and I didn't pick the songs. Sue did a great job picking that list. I just went through it and said, what are all the emotions that are stirred by this truth Because Christians are to be emotional people, feeling people, devoted to Jesus from the heart. It should be our deep-seated feelings about Jesus that produce a steadfast purpose to follow him. So when you read Acts 11, verse 23, and Barnabas exhorting them to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, he's telling them, continue in your Christian life with all of your heart. conform every emotion that you have, every feeling that you have to the good news about Jesus, right? And that's how you find unwavering devotion to Jesus. Christians are people who are devoted from the heart. So maybe you just need to look at your heart and say, does truth about Jesus actually stir me to do something and be something? That's how it's supposed to be. The fifth mark of Christians in Acts chapter 11 is that they gather for teaching. Why did Barnabas go get Saul? Because the church needed to be taught. Saul was a good teacher. And they taught in Antioch for a year. And guess what Barnabas and Saul do everywhere they go? They teach. And that's why we gather on the Lord's day. We gather for worship around the word. Like we worship by teaching and hearing. And even our community activities as a church are centered around the Bible. We have Sunday school. We have women's Bible study and men's Bible study and Wednesday night Bible study. And that's not just because we're particularly bookish people. It's because this is what Christians do. We gather to hear from God. So I encourage you, be a Christian who's being taught. And if God so gifts you and calls you, be a teacher. The last defining mark of a Christian in Acts chapter 11 is that Christians do grassroots deeds of love. Christians do grassroots deeds of love. Look again at verse 29. Remember, this is in light of the coming famine. So the disciples determined everyone, according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And I love that it says it's the disciples. It's not Saul, and it's not Barnabas, and it's not the elders, and it's not the apostles. It's the disciples. It's the people who decide to do good in Jesus' name. This is normal Christianity. God's love and generosity towards us compels us to deeds of love and generosity to others. So I ask you Christians, in light of the various ways that people in our community and our world meet hardships, what do you feel compelled to do about it? Determine among yourselves, what are we supposed to do in Jesus' name and do it? And the church will come alongside and support. Like, kids, I think this is a great question that you can start asking of yourselves and asking of your parents, because it challenges us as parents. When we see bad things happening in this world, like wildfires in California, or we see illness spreading around, we should be asking ourselves, okay, Christians, what are we gonna do about it? What are we gonna do about it? Kids, it's a great question for you to ask. What do we do about this evil and take action in Jesus' name? You know, we talk about ministering in this place to know Jesus and make Him known. We need to be doing good to our community in Jesus' name. And I wanna try to put opportunities in front of you as I'm able. But what really moves the church, what really moves people is not just pastors preaching sermons. It's when the people determine to do something good and challenge the rest of us to join in. This is what happens in Christianity. Christians do grassroots deeds of love. God is accomplishing his worldwide mission through places and through people who are becoming Christians. That was true 2,000 years ago in Antioch, and it's true today. As one person believes, they tell others, who believe and tell others, and the gospel goes from me to you to the ends of the earth. And as people believe, they are changed. And as people are changed, families are changed, and as families are changed, communities are changed, and the watching world takes notice. This is how God decided to organize the world. Not that we would call ourselves Christians and everybody would agree to the term, but that people would see how we live and who we are, and they would say, we've got to call that something. And they're clearly all about Jesus, so let's call them Christians. This is the outworking of what Jesus said in Matthew 5. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Let's pray. God, we ask that that would be true among us. God, that we would do good deeds in Jesus' name, and we would love Jesus with all of our hearts, and follow Him, and worship Him, and devote our lives to Him, and tell people about Him, so that people would look at us, and they would really look through us and past us to see Jesus the Christ. And they could do nothing else except for say, those people are all about Jesus. They're Christians. God, we want to be Christians who are faithful. So change us, grow us, God, that you would receive all glory and praise, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.